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The Cain campaign might just be the most politically inept of any in recent history. Tonight their campaign manager informed Hannity viewers that Josh Kraushaar was both the son of Cain accuser Karen Kraushaar, and that he worked at Politico. "Can you confirm that?", Sean Hannity asked again, realizing he had a "scoop" on his hands (a scoop of exactly what is another matter), and Mark Block replied in the affirmative.

The only problems with these latest bits of fiction from the wholly fictitious campaign of Herman Cain is that (a) John Kraushaar is not related to Karen Kraushaar, and (b) He does not work for Poltico; he works for NationalJournal.com as their Executive Editor. Mark Block's exercises in conspiracy theories will undoubtedly continue as long as the media calls them a frontrunner and not the obvious trainwreck they've been all along.

Josh Kraushaar could at least draw some humor from the foolishness, tweeting:

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Following up on her reporting from last week where Rachel Maddow called Herman Cain a "performance artist and "the practical joke no one is getting", Maddow took us for a little walk down memory lane on the scandal ridden Tim Phillips, Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist who all have ties to the Koch brothers and Herman Cain's campaign manager, Mark Block.

Cain's headaches with these charges of sexual harassment or possibly sexual assault after the accusations made today are not the only troubles his campaign is facing by far.

As Rachel reminded us, we recently had Cain the complaints filed against his campaign by CREW, calling himself "the Koch brothers' brother from another mother.":

On Friday, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) over allegations that Prosperity USA had illegally funneled donations to the Cain's campaign through Americans for Prosperity. At the time, Prosperity USA, the Wisconsin arm of Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity, was operated by Cain campaign manager Mark Block.

"It is not sufficient for the Cain campaign to investigate itself," CREW executive director Melanie Sloan said in a media advisory. "Rather, the FEC -- the federal agency charged with enforcing campaign finance laws -- must look into the matter."

Cain first met Block while working as a speaker for Americans for Prosperity in 2005.

The New York Times has more on the allegations against the Cain campaign here -- Cain to Review Links to a Nonprofit.

With the news that convicted lobbyist just got out of prison and is now out there trying to sell his new book as we just saw during the 60 Minutes interview this weekend, it was nice to see all of them called out properly for just how big of crooks they are.

Rachel reported on Tim Phillips and his ties to Jack Abramoff and Ralph Reed back in March of this year and she did a nice job of going back through some of that material in the segment above.

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In today's episode of "Let Herman Be Herman", we once again hear from his campaign manager Mark Block that: they're no longer going to discuss this matter (though Block has been on Fox News every day this week discussing this matter); that they may sue Politico and that those reporters should be fired; that "the media has been a cesspool and were' not going to swim in that cesspool anymore." Block then ended that part of the interview, invoking Ronald Reagan's 11th Commandment when asked about their earlier attacks on the Rick Perry campaign

The Cain campaign seems to have resorted to the belief that the best defense is a strong offense, no matter how offensive. They've now rolled out their version of High Tech Lynching, the visuals as subtle as a sledgehammer.

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The continuing farce that is the Herman Cain campaign again took many turns today. So many in fact that it was hard, if not impossible to keep up with them all, so I won't even bother in this post or it will get far too long. One big one was Cain's campaign manager Mark Block (aka Smoking Man) walking back his inflammatory comments from yesterday that the Rick Perry campaign, and specifically a recent addition to that campaign was behind the leaked news of sexual harassment charges. It was pretty clear the Cain campaign had no real evidence for their own accusation against Perry, beyond the coincidental, yet they felt compelled to attack the Perry campaign anyway, a diversionary tactic which not only failed, but raised the ire of the Republican Party. Campaigns do such things when they're floundering to get a hold of situations seemingly beyond their control.

MARK BLOCK (11.02.11): The actions of the Perry campaign are despicable. Rick Perry and his campaign owe Herman Cain and his family an apology.

I've included a brief clip with Bret Baier from yesterday, and one with Megyn Kelly today to compare and contrast. Note also that Block wasn't just caught up in the moment yesterday with some emotional rhetoric but mostly read from a prepared statement.

BLOCK: All the evidence that we had on what's transpired in the last two weeks led up to Mr. Anderson as being the source. We were absolutely thrilled that he came on your show and said that it wasn't him, because Mr. Cain has always had the utmost respect for him. I'm going to do the same thing that Mr. Anderson has done and move on, talk about the issues and get off this silliness as he called it, and let's get on with the campaign.

MEGYN KELLY: Do you stand down then from your accusation that the Perry campaign is behind what you've referred to as a smear?

BLOCK: I will stand behind what we said yesterday and was, again, thrilled that Mr. Anderson said it didn't come from him.

MEGYN KELLY: With apologies, I don't mean to belabor the point, but I think I might be confused. Yesterday, you accused Mr. Anderson who works for Perry of being being behind it, and today you say what?

BLOCK: The things that we had been told yesterday, as an example, I think that you had also reported that a lawyer for one of the super PACs supporting Perry also had miscellaneous..er.. erroneous information in a radio station in Oklahoma. Until we get all the facts, I'm just going to say that we accept what Mr. Anderson had said and we want to move on with the campaign. Let's get over these things that don't mean anything to the American public.

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A decidedly more downbeat Chief of Staff Mark Block again stars.

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CBS host Bob Schieffer scolded Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain Sunday for an online ad that prominently features his top advisor smoking a cigarette.

Cain explained that while he doesn't personally smoke, he didn't have a problem with Mark Block's smoking hadbit: "I don't have a problem if that's his choice."

"It sends a signal that it is cool to smoke," Schieffer noted.

"No, it does not," Cain argued. "Mark Block smokes. That's all that ad says. We weren't trying to say it's cool to smoke. We have a lot of people in this country that smoke, but what I respect about Mark as a smoker, who is my chief of staff, he never smokes around me or smokes around anyone else. He goes outside."

"He smokes on television," Schieffer pointed out.

"If they listen to the message where he said America has never seen a candidate like Herman Cain. That was the main point of it. The bit on the end we didn't know whether it would be funny to some people or whether they were going to ignore it or whatever the case may be," Cain said.

"It's not funny to me. I am a cancer survivor like you," Schieffer remarked. "I had cancer that was smoking related. I don't think it serves the country well -- and this is an editorial opinion here -- to be showing someone smoking a cigarette. You're the frontrunner now. It seems to me as frontrunner you would have a responsibility not to take that kind of a tone in this campaign. I would suggest that perhaps as the frontrunner, you'd want to raise the level of the campaign. ... Would you take the ad down?"

"It's impossible to do now," Cain claimed. "Once you put it on the Internet, it goes viral. We could take it off of our website, but there are other sites that have already picked it up. It's nearly impossible to erase that ad from the Internet."

"Have you ever thought of just saying to young people, 'Don't smoke'?" Schieffer asked. "Four hundred thousand people in America die every year from smoking-related [diseases]."

"I will have no problem saying that," Cain insisted.

"Say it right now," Schieffer demanded.

"Young people of America, all people, do not smoke," Cain said. "It is hazardous and it's dangerous to your health. Don't smoke. I've never smoked and I have encouraged people not to smoke. ... It is not a cool thing to do. That's not what I was trying to say. Smoking is is not a cool thing to do."

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Following the release of an ad showing him puffing on a cigarette, an adviser for Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is facing some extra scrutiny -- and it isn't just about his nicotine habit.

An Associated Press report released Friday found that Cain chief of staff Mark Block not only has a history of legal and financial problems, but is also haunted by several allegations of voter suppression.

Block entered politics in 1974 when he was elected to the Winnebago County Board of Supervisors at the age of 18. Twenty years later, in 1994, Block's record was blemished after he was accused of illegally coordinating the re-election campaign of state Supreme Court Justice Jon Wilcox with a special interest group.

Although Block agreed to pay $15,000 and was banned from Wisconsin politics for three years, he never admitted guilt and maintains that the charges were "ridiculous."

With his career in politics on hold, Block's personal life spun out of control. He took a job at Target, faced a foreclosure, a tax warrant from the Internal Revenue Service, a lawsuit over an unpaid bill and two drunken driving charges.

"That's why I don't drink anymore," he told the AP.

By 2005, things were looking up for Block after he was hired by the Koch Brothers-funded tea party group Americans for Prosperity (AFP). In his role as Wisconsin director of AFP, he met and bonded with Cain, who was serving as CEO of Godfather's Pizza at the time.

Then in 2007, Block found himself in the middle of another controversy when AFP launched a robo-call campaign against a proposed $119 million school building referendum. A Wisconsin prosecutor said the calls were misleading, but he declined to bring charges.

But it wasn't the last time Wisconsin's AFP chapter was accused of wrongdoing while Block was in charge.

The liberal group One Wisconsin Now revealed audio tapes last year that suggested the then-AFP director was involved in a "voter caging" scheme.

Voter caging is a tactic that attempts to invalidate voter registrations by sending non-forwardable mass mailings to certain groups of people like minorities and students. When the mail is returned, a "caging list" is created to officially challenge the registrations. Republicans have used the practice in small operations going back to 1958, but in 2004, more than half a million voters were targeted.

In the 2010 audio recording, tea party leader Tim Dake seemingly admitted that Block was in on a coordinated plot to suppress the votes of minorities in Wisconsin.

"So, what we're hoping is that the various groups in the coalition plus Americans for Prosperity and Mark Block, who has been in on this, and the Republican Party," Dake said, "[T]his is coming all the way from the top: Reince Priebus has said, 'We're in.' And there's a reason why these guys are volunteering to work with us. They have access to what they call Voter Vault, you know the records of voting. They can go in there and look for lapsed voters."

Block admitted to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that his group sent about 500 letters to see if they were deliverable.

"About 10 letters were returned, which indicated to me there wasn't a problem," he said.

Cain told Fox News' Sean Hannity Thursday that he stands behind Block's unconventional methods.

"We have a saying in my campaign... let Herman be Herman," Cain explained. "Mark Block is my chief of staff and we also say let Mark be Mark."

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Herman Cain's senior adviser says that a new campaign ad isn't encouraging anyone to take up smoking, but the campaign is "resonating" with nicotine fans.

The image of chief of staff Mark Block smoking in a recent campaign ad has quickly overshadowed any other message the campaign intended to send.

"There was no subliminal message," Block told Fox News' Megyn Kelly Tuesday. "I personally would encourage people not to smoke. It's just that I'm a smoker and as a lot of the people on the staff said, 'Just let Block be Block.'"

"Were you trying to appeal to, you know, folks who are out there, you know, living their lives, working the farm, working in Detroit, that kind of thing as opposed to the East and West Coast elite, people in media circles who shun smoking and, you know, sort of real American things?" Kelly asked.

"I tell you, you walk into a veterans bar in Iowa and they're sitting around smoking and we are resonating with them," Block replied. "I'm not the only one that smokes in America for God sake. It's a choice that I've made."

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via The Houston Chronicle

In what is surely the strangest ad thus far in the campaign season, a video on Herman Cain’s official YouTube page features the candidate’s chief of staff Mark Block earnestly pitching Cain and then slowly puffing on a cigarette.

Most of the text is pretty standard stuff: “Herman Cain will put United back in the United States of America,” “America’s never seen a candidate like Herman Cain,” etc. Of course, Block is paid to espouse those beliefs, but no matter.

The weirdness comes in during the last few seconds of the video: in a tight shot on Block’s face, he slowly drags a butt as songstress Krista Branch sings the tea party fave “I am America.”

They call it "the strangest video of the political season". I call it absolute genius. Where else could you see Tea Party paranoia/patriotism combined with the common man's absolute freedom to make bad personal choices like smoking?

The ad reminded many of the great character in the tv series X Files, The Smoking Man.