Cain tries to contain sex scandal

Cain admitted on Tuesday that the woman, an employee at the restaurant association he chaired at the time, had received a paid settlement, as the apparent changes in his story threatened to derail his White House bid.

The New York Times meanwhile reported early Wednesday that the other woman, also an employee, had received a $35,000 severance package -- equal to a year\'s salary -- after saying Cain\'s behavior had made her feel uncomfortable.

Cain has repeatedly denied the allegations, but his stumbling response to them over the past two days has raised doubts about the political outsider\'s ability to campaign under the harsh glare of the media spotlight.

"I am not trying to hide anything. I am trying to put it all out there for people to see," the former pizza company executive told CNN affiliate HLN on Tuesday, as he again denied what he called "ridiculous" allegations.

"I absolutely believe this is an intended smear campaign," he said, portraying the unearthing of claims from more than a decade ago as a calculated move by political opponents to end his steady rise in the opinion polls.

"Someone does not like the fact that we\'re doing so well in this campaign and that I\'m at or near the top of the polls consistently," said Cain, who tops most surveys alongside former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.

Cain\'s account of the scandal has shifted over the past two days -- he says he has remembered more as he has gone along -- but he has consistently denied sexually harassing anyone at any point during his 40-year business career.

He boasted Tuesday that those who intended to hurt him by resurrecting the case would be vexed to discover that conservatives had rallied around him and were sending in ever greater campaign donations.

"Yesterday online, we had one of our highest fundraising days in the campaign -- one of the highest ever," Cain told CNN.

"I believe it has backfired on those that are trying to put a cloud over my campaign, because they can\'t shoot down my ideals."

A lawyer for one of the two women at the center of the case meanwhile urged the National Restaurant Association, a lobbying group then run by Cain, to lift a legal order that bars her from discussing the harassment allegations.

"It is just frustrating that Herman Cain is going around bad-mouthing the two complainants, and my client is blocked by a confidentiality agreement," the attorney, Joel Bennett, told The Washington Post.

"The National Restaurant Association ought to release them and allow them to respond," he said.

Bennett later told CNN that his client, who is a career civil servant, had made a "good faith, honest complaint of sexual harassment."

The New York Times meanwhile reported that Cain\'s wife of more than 40 years, until now all but absent from the campaign trail, was planning a television interview Friday on Fox News to defend her embattled husband.

Cain\'s campaign was rocked by the Politico.com article late Sunday that said the restaurant association had reached financial settlements with two women who accused him of sexually inappropriate behavior.

Prominent conservatives have backed Cain, a 65-year-old former CEO of Godfather\'s Pizza popular among Tea Party supporters.

Influential radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh was among the first to come to his defense, decrying what he called "gutter partisan politics."

And right-wing pundit Ann Coulter stirred racial sensitivities by calling Cain\'s treatment "another high-tech lynching" by a liberal media that she said was averse to black conservative politicians.

Coulter and others likened Cain\'s plight to that of African American Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas who, while a nominee, faced sexual harassment allegations that threatened to derail his confirmation.

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