OK, so I just need to close the loop here. On Monday, Herman Cain announced that he had decided to pull his name from consideration for the Federal Reserve, thus bringing a weekslong farce to a merciful close. Trump said earlier this month that he was going to nominate the former pizza exec, presidential candidate, accused sexual harasser, and political loyalist for one of the central bank’s two open seats. Enough Republicans rebelled to kill his chances of Senate confirmation. Cain said he wasn’t giving up. Then he did. End of story.
But man. The excuse. On Monday, Cain published a post on the Western Journal explaining his supposed reasons for withdrawing. He claims he didn’t want to take a pay cut.
At the same time, I was told what the ethical restrictions would be. I would have to let go of most of my business interests. I could not serve on any boards. I could not do any paid speeches. I could not advocate on behalf of capitalism, host my radio show or make appearances on Fox Business.
Without getting too specific about how big a pay cut this would be, let’s just say I’m pretty confident that if your boss told you to take a similar pay cut, you’d tell him where to go.
As Axios notes, Fed governors make $183,000 a year. Maybe Cain is raking in more these days. But this probably belongs in the hall of fame for “You didn’t break up with me! I broke up with you!” moments.
Anyway, this all leaves Trump’s other preferred Fed candidate, Stephen Moore, to dangle alone in the media spotlight. On Monday, CNN uncovered a series of embarrassing National Review articles the man published in the early 2000s, one of which argued that women should be barred from participating in March Madness, unless they were hot. As always, it’s hard to know whether to laugh or cry.
