This is going to get very ugly very quickly. We’re going to quote a passage at length from the Penn State grand-jury report — the part that describes what then-graduate assistant and now-assistant coach Mike McQueary saw in the locker-room shower, and what he did about it. Especially the latter.

We’re quoting the passage because McQueary’s been — in our judgment — too casually condemned for his response. Andrew Sullivan, in particular, has been all over it. And, to jump ahead to our point, we’re not sure we would have handled it any better. Or, more precisely, we have no fucking clue how we would have handled it. Hindsight not only distorts perception, it distorts the facts.

Here’s the relevant passage, from page 6:

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In an interview for GQ which is, I believe, a magazine of some kind, Herman Cain confesses to a love of meat. Particularly sausage. He does not care too much for veggie pizza believing it to be sissy. As Mr. Cain points out: real men crave meat. As much as possible. No word yet on whether or not he’s cramming it down his own throat or if he’s got someone to do that for him.

Either way-

He’s got my vote.

The Rude Pundit on the latest GOP man crush (audio NSFW):

Demonstrating why we haven’t been fans of Occupy Wall Street, ThinkProgress chose this morning to highlight a statement from Occupy Portland (attn. Brent Musburger: “Orygun”) after the Rose City cops provided them some valuable baton-wielding publicity:

By camping outside the city hall, we gave you a choice to decide to stand with us and with working class Americans. Instead, you made the choice to protect unjust social and economic policies that are leading our nation into a state of financial ruin and institutionalized oppression.

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We haven’t been fans of Occupy Wall Street — to say the least — but we have to give them partial credit for changing the national conversation. When’s the last time you heard about the deficit?

The rest of the credit goes to various police departments in Our Exceptional Nation, starting and — late last night — apparently ending with the NYPD, which forcefully cleared Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park.

Without the NYPD — ably assisted more recently by Oakland’s Finest — the movement would have labored in the obscurity under which it began. But move some riot cops into a bored crowd of unarmed hippies, and you have ratings gold.

Police Begin Clearing Zuccotti Park of Protesters [NYT]

Photo: @JoshHarkinson

Herman Cain! rolls out his hilarious! James Stockdale impression: “President Obama called for the removal of Gaddafi. Just want to make sure we’re talking about the same thing before I say, yes I agree, I know I didn’t agree. I do not agree with the way he handled it for the following reason — no, that’s a different one. I gotta go back to… Got all this stuff twirling around in my head. Specifically, what are you asking me, did I agree or not disagree with on what?” [Political Wire]

“Schools nationwide, including The University of Missouri and Washington University, are snapping up .xxx domain names to avoid links of their names to porn sites.” [CBS]