**Update: Cain Camp Blames Perry For Leaking Sexual Harassment Story

It’s going to be a long week for Herman Cain, if this is dropping so late on a Wednesday night….

This just in from Politico:

Cain’s inflammatory charge came in an interview with Forbes:

In the summer of 2003, Cain recalls briefing Anderson—his general campaign consultant at the time—that sexual harassment claims were brought against him while he was chairman of the National Restaurant Association from 1996 to 1999.

“I told my wife about this in 1999 and I’ve got nothing to hide,” Cain told me Wednesday. “When I sat down with my general campaign consultant Kurt Anderson in a private room in our campaign offices in 2003 we discussed opposition research on me. It was a typical campaign conversation. I told him that there was only one case, one set of charges, one woman while I was at the National Restaurant Association. Those charges were baseless, but I thought he needed to know about them. I don’t recall anyone else being in the room when I told him.” …

Aside from knowing about the alleged sexual harassment accusations, Cain campaign officials point to the timing of Anderson’s hiring by Perry as evidence of his involvement. The campaign announced Anderson’s role on October 24, just a week before Politico broke the story.

Does he regret telling Anderson about it? “I don’t regret it at all,” Cain says. “The guy who was supposed to help with strategy should know everything. I put it on the table right from the get go. I wasn’t trying to hide it.”

UPDATE:
Herman Cain’s campaign manager, Mark Block, went on Fox News to personally accuse the Perry campaign of leaking the sexual harassment charges to Politico.  He says, “The actions of the Perry campaign are despicable.”  Video is below.

UPDATE 2:
Now the Perry camp points their finger at the Romney camp. (I kid you not, people)
This via CBS.com:

Rick Perry’s presidential campaign says it is “absolutely not” responsible for leaking the fact that Herman Cain was accused of sexual misconduct while head of the National Restaurant Association to Politico, which broke the explosive story Sunday night.

“That is false, patently untrue, no one at this campaign was involved in this story,” said Perry communications director Ray Sullivan.

Sullivan then suggested to CBS News and National Journal reporter Rebecca Kaplan that Mitt Romney’s campaign is behind the allegations.

“I wouldn’t put it past them,” he said, stating that blog posts have noted that Cain’s successor at the Restaurant Association “is a big Romney donor.”

“There are much closer connections between the Restaurant Association, Cain and the Romney camp than there are with us,” he said.

Federal Election Commission records show that Steven C. Anderson, who succeeded Cain as the Restaurant Association’s CEO, gave $1,000 to Romney’s campaign on July 14, Kaplan reports. He also gave a total of $1,000 to Cain in two $500 installments during Cain’s 2003-2004 Senate campaign.

In response to Sullivan’s comments, Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul offered two words to CBS News: “Not true.” She declined to elaborate.