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I was very, Perry wrong

Washington Herman Cain’s campaign yesterday backed off explosive charges that GOP rival Rick Perry’s campaign was the source for a damaging story linking Cain to sexual harassment of female staffers while he headed the National Restaurant Association.

Cain’s chief of staff, Mark Block, told Fox News yesterday that he accepts the strong denials by Curt Anderson, a former Cain aide who now works for Perry, that he was the source for the story.

“All the evidence we had pointed to Mr. Anderson being the source. We are absolutely thrilled that he came on your show said it wasn’t him,” Block said. “Mr. Cain has always had the utmost respect for him.”

Block said he wants to “move on” with the campaign, adding, “Let’s get over these things that don’t mean anything to the American public.”

For his part, Anderson praised Cain yesterday and said, “I don’t have any knowledge of any of this, and, you know, it’s just not true.”

Cain’s reversal was the latest in a series of 180-degree turns during the saga. Just a day earlier, Block told Fox News that “Rick Perry and his campaign owe Herman Cain and his family an apology,” while Cain himself said the Perry camp “stirred this up in order to discredit me.”

Cain’s troubles could mount today if an accuser who reportedly got a $45,000 settlement from the restaurant group after she’d complained about his behavior is permitted to tell what happened.

Her attorney, Joel Bennett, says he asked the restaurant association to lift a confidentiality agreement to allow him to release her statement about the episode.

The restaurant group, for which Cain was CEO from 1996 to 1999, said its outside attorney would respond to the request today.

Politico.com reported the $45,000 payment — an amount that exceeds what Cain has at various times said amounted to just a few months’ salary. A different woman reportedly got $35,000 when she left the association after complaining about Cain.

Cain kept up his defiant stance yesterday in a Daily Caller interview with Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

“That is the DC culture: guilty until proven innocent,” Cain vented.

After several combative encounters with the press, Cain made no public appearances yesterday. He is scheduled to speak today to a Washington meeting of Americans for Prosperity Defending the American Dream.

Despite the publicity over the sex-harassment claims, Cain remains atop most GOP polls. And his campaign says it has raised $1.2 million since the scandal broke.

GOP pollster Chris Wilson, who does work for a pro-Perry super PAC, said this week that he witnessed one of the alleged incidents in a Virginia restaurant.

“It was only a matter of time, because so many people were aware of what took place,” he told an Oklahoma radio station. “. . . Everybody knew, with the campaign, this would eventually come up.”