Herman Cain (Steve Marcus/Reuters)

Herman Cain (Steve Marcus/Reuters)

... when the charges were brought, as the leader of the organization, I recused myself and allowed my general counsel and my Human Resource officer to deal with the situation.

Earlier today, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain appeared at the National Press Club and and addressed allegations of sexual harassments complaints that were lodged against him when he was the head of the National Restaurants Association. Cain categorically denied that he had ever sexually harassed anyone, that he was unaware of any payments made to the claimants, and then said

There's one problem with that:

In another odd element to the story, the head of human resources at the NRA during Cain’s tenure, Mary Ose, denied to Politico that she ever investigated Cain or was even aware of the accusations: “No, I do not,” said Mary Ose, the former human resources chief when asked if she was aware of allegations about Cain’s behavior from his time. When pressed, Ose, now retired and living in Arkansas, said she never heard any hint of a problem with Cain and female association employees. “No, none,” she said.

So, which HR "officer" did Cain turn the investigation over to? Apparently one who doesn't report to the head of HR and is authorized to make pay offs. How handy.