A woman who accused Herman Cain of sexual harassment in the 1990s is ready for her story to come out, her attorney said Tuesday, even as the Republican presidential hopeful spent a second day trying to quell the mounting controversy and explain his conflicting recollections of the matter. 
 
 Joel P. Bennett, a lawyer representing one of two women who made the claims against Cain, said Tuesday that his client is barred from publicly relating her side because of a non-disclosure agreement she signed upon leaving the National Restaurant Association, where Cain served as president from 1996 through 1999. 
 
 Bennett is calling on the association to waive the agreement so the woman, a federal worker living in suburban Maryland, can rebut Cain’s statements this week that the allegations were false and baseless. 
 
 “It is just frustrating that Herman Cain is going around bad-mouthing the two complainants, and my client is blocked by a confidentiality agreement,” Bennett said in an interview. “The National Restaurant Association ought to release them and allow them to respond.” 
 
 Tuesday on Fox News, Cain declined to comment on whether the non-disclosure agreement should be lifted, saying he is consulting with a lawyer about the possible legal implications. In a statement, the restaurant association said that it had not been approached by Bennett but that it would “respond as appropriate.” 
 
 The disclosure Sunday by Politico that two women had accused Cain of sexual harassment and received settlements from the restaurant association sparked a political crisis for the Georgia businessman, who has risen from the bottom of the Republican presidential pack to become a front-runner for the party’s nomination. 
 
 Only Cain’s version of events has been aired publicly, and he has said that his recollections are hazy. Support for Cain has remained strong despite the controversy, his staff said, and the campaign claimed a banner fundraising day Monday. But that could change if one or both of the women speak publicly and appear credible, and Tuesday’s events made clear that pressure will remain on Cain to fully detail the incidents. 
 
 Bennett’s client is eager to share her story, the lawyer said, but according to someone familiar with her thinking who spoke on the condition of anonymity, she also is wary of her name becoming public. The woman “did not create this story,” the source said, and she thinks she has been “completely swept up in this hurricane” but is discussing with her family whether to make her story public. 
 
 The woman’s claim was that the harassment occurred over months and was not an isolated comment or incident, the source said. 
 
 The New York Times reported Tuesday night that a second woman received a settlement of $35,000, or one year’s salary, after Cain made her uncomfortable working at the restaurant association, according to three people with direct knowledge of the payment. 
 
 Cain verified Monday that one allegation of sexual harassment was lodged against him during his time at the association but said he did not know of a second. He first said he had no knowledge of a settlement but later said he knew some details of the payout. In interviews, Cain attributed his inconsistent recollections to various factors, including the amount of time that had passed. 
 
 Asked whether he had violated the non-disclosure agreement by divulging details about the matter, Cain responded in the Fox interview that he had not because he did not reveal the complainant’s name. 
 
 Cain has conducted a personality-driven campaign that has eschewed traditional avenues. He has not spent much time in Iowa or other states with early voting contests, preferring to appear regularly on cable television. He has relied on his charisma and ideas to gain voters’ attention, using memorable slogans and infusing his remarks with humor. 
 
 Friends and longtime acquaintances say Cain has a gift for connecting with people, recalling names and exuding a warmth that belies his position as a successful executive. But they say it is possible that some may misconstrue his jokes and mannerisms. 
 
 “He’s professional, but he’s very friendly,” said Steve Grubbs, Cain’s Iowa chairman. “Maybe some people mis­interpret friendly. But I can tell you this: He’s not afraid to give you a slap on the back or an enthusiastic handshake. He’s a gregarious person in many ways.” 
 
 Karol Markowicz, who worked as deputy press secretary to Cain during his 2004 Senate bid and traveled throughout Georgia with him during that campaign, said that Cain was, and still is, “extremely friendly.” But that didn’t translate into more glad-handing on the campaign trail than any other politician was doing. 
 
 “I don’t remember him being a big hugger,” she said. “If he slapped people on the back, he did it to men and women.” 
 
 Even as a top executive, Cain traveled often to speak with low-level employees and see how stores were faring on the ground. He rarely hesitated to pitch in if a restaurant was swamped and often slipped well-performing employees $50 on the spot to reward their work. The result, particularly at Godfather’s Pizza, was an abiding loyalty from his top deputies that remains today. 
 
 On the campaign trail, he has an unrestrained style that some supporters like but that at times rubs people the wrong way. He drew fire, for example, for suggesting that an electric fence be erected along the southern U.S. border. He later said he was joking but, in some settings, treated the idea seriously. Cain, who is black, also has joked repeatedly about race. 
 
 Cain had dinner with about a dozen Republican senators at Bobby Van’s restaurant in downtown Washington Tuesday night. He eluded reporters on his way in and out of the two-hour huddle. 
 
 “The focus was on just issues,” Sen. Bob Corker (Tenn.) told reporters as he left the restaurant shortly after 10 p.m., adding that the harassment allegations did not come up while he was in the room. 
 
 Among the lawmakers present were several from key early primary states, including Sens. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.) and Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.). 
 
 The previous day, Cain spoke at the American Enterprise Institute and alluded to his edgy sense of humor. As questions about the sexual harassment allegations intensified, he suggested that his humor might foster misunderstandings. 
 
 “Yes, I am an un­conventional candidate,” he said. “And yes, I do have a sense of humor, and some people have a problem with that. But to quote my chief of staff and all of the people that I talk to around this country, ‘Herman be Herman.’ And Herman is going to stay Herman.”­­ 
 
 Staff writers Chris Cillizza, Krissah Thompson, Brady Dennis and Felicia Sonmez and staff researcher Lucy Shackelford contributed to this report. 
 
 More from PostPolitics: 
 
 Iowa Republicans play down Cain controversy 
 
 Cain says he is fundraising off of ‘smear’ 
 
 Herman Cain sings at National Press Club (video) 
 
 Women were already cool to Cain ||||| Washington (CNN) -- One of the women who accused Republican presidential contender Herman Cain of sexual harassment released a statement through her lawyer Friday saying that she "stands by" her complaint, which was made "in good faith about a series of inappropriate behaviors and unwanted advances." 
 
 There was "more than one incident" of harassment involving Cain and his client over the span of a couple of months in 1999, attorney Joel Bennett said. 
 
 Bennett said his client, married for 26 years, will not reveal her identity because "she and her husband see no value in revisiting this matter now nor in discussing the matter any further publicly or privately." 
 
 "In fact," he added, "it would be extremely painful for her to do so." 
 
 Bennett released the statement after reaching an agreement to do so with the National Restaurant Association, the organization headed by Cain during the time of the alleged harassment. The group has an agreement with the alleged victim that includes a series of confidentiality and non-disparagement provisions. 
 
 Dawn Sweeney, the current head of the association, issued a statement confirming that in July 1999, Bennett's client "filed a formal internal complaint, in accordance with the association's existing policies prohibiting discrimination and harassment." 
 
 Cain, she noted, "disputed the allegations in the complaint." 
 
 Sweeney said the association is prepared to fully release Bennett's client from her confidentiality agreement in the event she wants to disclose additional details. 
 
 The controversy has dominated Cain's front-running campaign for the past week. A defiant Cain insists he did nothing wrong, and will not let the issue deter him. 
 
 Cain spokesman J.D. Gordon said in response to Bennett's statement that the Cain campaign looks "forward to focusing our attention on the real issues impacting this country -- like fixing this broken economy and putting Americans back to work." 
 
 Cain's campaign said earlier Friday it is considering filing a lawsuit against Politico, the news organization which broke the harassment story last Sunday. 
 
 A possible lawsuit "is being discussed," Gordon told CNN. Gordon declined, however, to discuss the timetable or legal basis for such a move. Cain and his campaign aides have been highly critical of Politico's use of anonymous sources, among other things. 
 
 Politico executive editor Jim VandeHei told CNN he had heard nothing from the Cain campaign, and said the organization "stands confidently behind every story (our) reporters have written on the topic." 
 
 Cain has cited strong poll numbers and fund-raising to claim voters know the allegations are a baseless political attack. 
 
 "The American people are starting to see through this stuff, and they are sick of gutter politics," Cain declared in a radio interview with conservative commentator Sean Hannity on Thursday. "This will not deter me." 
 
 Asked about money paid to two women -- including Bennett's client -- when they left the National Restaurant Association, Cain said in the one case he recalled, it was severance money because accusations of impropriety on his part proved unfounded. 
 
 Bennett insisted Friday there was no severance agreement, but rather a financial settlement of the harassment complaint. 
 
 Cain on Thursday also repeated his accusation that the campaign of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a conservative rival for the GOP nomination, was behind the allegations emerging as Cain rose to the top of the polls in the race. 
 
 In particular, he noted that a former aide, Curt Anderson, signed on with the Perry campaign shortly before the allegations surfaced in Politico. 
 
 "These are the facts. Connect the dots," Cain said, adding that "as more of the information comes out, the more baseless it appears to people." 
 
 In an interview Thursday with CNN, however, Perry flatly denied that his campaign had anything to do with the story. He also vowed that he'd fire any staffer if he found out they were "passing on rumors." 
 
 "(There is) no apology needed," Perry said. "We found out about this the same time that I suppose the rest of America found out about it. I don't know how to tell it any other way, except I knew nothing about it." 
 
 Cain later softened his earlier claim that he told Anderson about one of the allegations against him in a private discussion in 2003. On Thursday, he told Hannity he was "almost certain" the discussion took place. 
 
 The allegations have set off a fierce round of claims and counter-claims regarding how the information became public. At the same time, Cain's campaign announced Thursday he has raised $1.2 million this week since the allegations first surfaced on Sunday in a big boost from supporters. 
 
 The news appears to have had little impact so far on Cain's standing in the GOP race. An ABC News/Washington Post poll released Friday morning -- the first survey conducted entirely after news of the alleged harassment broke -- showed Cain in a dead heat with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney atop the GOP field. 
 
 According to the poll, 24% of Republicans and independents who lean toward the GOP now say they support Romney, compared with 23% for Cain. Romney and Cain have been neck-and-neck in most major national surveys over the past month. 
 
 What exactly transpired during the alleged harassment incidents remains unclear. Asked by Hannity if he ever made flirtatious comments to female subordinates or comments such as "you look hot" or anything, Cain replied: "No, no, no, I didn't." 
 
 As a business leader, he said, he "learned a long time ago" not to comment on a woman's appearance or make any kind of personal comment unless he was "really, really comfortable" with a colleague. Cain told HLN earlier this week that he has never committed sexual harassment "in (his) entire career. Period." 
 
 For his part, Anderson denied in a CNN interview Thursday that he was responsible for leaking the allegations. 
 
 Anderson, who worked on Cain's unsuccessful 2004 U.S. Senate campaign in Georgia and now is a consultant to Perry's campaign, insisted Cain never told him about the accusations. 
 
 "It's hard to leak something you don't know anything about," he said. "I don't have any knowledge of any of this and, you know, it's just not true." 
 
 Later, Cain's chief campaign strategist, Mark Block, said he accepted Anderson's denial, and wanted to move on from the controversy that has dogged his candidate all week. 
 
 "Until we get all the facts, I'm just going to say that we accept what Mr. Anderson has said, and we want to move on with the campaign," Block told Fox News. Block had earlier called for Perry to apologize to Cain for allegedly leaking the harassment allegations to the media. 
 
 Politico first published a report late Sunday claiming that two female employees at the National Restaurant Association accused Cain of inappropriate behavior during his tenure as head of the organization. The women, according to Politico, each received separation packages in the five-figure range. 
 
 The package for one of the women totaled between $32,000 to $37,000 -- approximately equivalent to her annual salary at the time, according to a former National Restaurant Association employee who knows one of the accusers. 
 
 "The workplace (had become) uncommunicative," the former employee told CNN. "They didn't give her work. She didn't interact with people." 
 
 The New York Times previously reported that one of the packages totaled $35,000. On Thursday, Politico reported the other package was for $45,000. 
 
 Cain criticized the Politico report in Thursday's interview, saying the Politico reporters never showed him any documentation or talked to the women who allegedly made the claims. When a Politico reporter was asked on CNN whether another campaign tipped him to the story, he refused to answer, Cain noted. 
 
 "I didn't know there were so many women named 'anonymous' in America, frankly," Cain joked in Thursday's interview about the lack of details about his accusers. Politico editor-in-chief John Harris told CNN the organization is following ordinary media standards by protecting its sources. 
 
 Cain has provided differing accounts of the allegations this week, raising further questions about what happened and the ability of the candidate and his campaign to deal with the controversy. While Cain's campaign was first approached by Politico 10 days before the story was first published, the candidate said he was only remembering many details of the incident on Monday. 
 
 Cain has seized on the uproar as an example of alleged liberal media bias. 
 
 On Wednesday, Cain's campaign called a report that a third former employee had claimed that he had engaged in inappropriate behavior an example of "baseless allegations." 
 
 "He has never acted in the way alleged by inside-the-Beltway media, and his distinguished record over 40 years spent climbing the corporate ladder speaks for itself," said J.D. Gordon, a Cain campaign spokesman. "Since his critics have not been successful in attacking his ideas, they are resorting to bitter personal attacks. Mr. Cain deserves better." 
 
 In the Hannity interview, Cain accused his critics of engaging in the politics of personal destruction, and he insisted his candidacy would survive the maelstrom. 
 
 He blasted what he called a "vicious liberal attack on me," saying the false accusations are because opponents can't coherently challenge his message and want to "intimidate other black conservatives to not go public." 
 
 So far, Cain has only released details about one of the allegations, saying it involved him gesturing to one of the women that she was the same height as his wife -- about 5 feet tall -- and came up to his chin. 
 
 Bennett has not indicated which of the alleged victims he represents, though he said his client is taller than 5 feet. He said earlier this week that his client is "happily married." 
 
 For his part, Cain has said he has no recollection of a second incident. According to Politico, however, one of the allegations involves an "unwanted sexual advance" at a hotel room in Chicago. 
 
 An independent group trying to help Cain released a web video Friday defending him against the harassment allegations and harshly criticizing media coverage of the story. 
 
 The video, by a super political action committee called the 9-9-9 Fund, includes clips of conservative hosts, including Rush Limbaugh. It also uses television clips of liberal pundits attacking Cain, as well as the famous clip of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas calling his grilling during his confirmation hearings two decades ago "a high-tech lynching." 
 
 The video ends with the onscreen message, "Don't let the left do it again." 
 
 CNN's Brian Todd, Gloria Borger, Dugald McConnell, Joshua Levs, Kevin Bohn, Mark Preston, Jim Acosta, Phil Gast and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
– Exactly the news Herman Cain didn't want to hear today: One of the two women who accused him of sexual harassment wants to go public, reports the Washington Post. The woman wants the National Restaurant Association to release her from a confidentiality agreement that was part of her settlement, says her attorney. (Cain characterizes the settlement as a mere severance agreement, but the lawyer disagrees.) “It is just frustrating that Herman Cain is going around bad-mouthing the two complainants, and my client is blocked by a confidentiality agreement," he says. "The National Restaurant Association ought to release them and allow them to respond." Cain denies the allegations as a "smear campaign." The Huffington Post rounds up his "evolving responses" on the issue—see the video here—since Politico broke the story.