Cain's spouse steps into spotlight

Tonight, when the Fox News program “On the Record” with Greta Van Susteren airs an interview with Herman and Gloria Cain, it will be the first time most in the country will have a face to go with the name of the Republican presidential candidate’s wife. It will be the first time most hear her voice or anything she has to say – about who she is, what she does with her time.

And, according to early excerpts from the show, Gloria Cain addresses the sexual harassment allegations that have put her husband on the defensive for the past two weeks, allegations dating back to the 1990s when he was head of the National Restaurant Association.

“I’m thinking he would have to have a split personality to do the things that were said,” Gloria Cain told Van Susteren. She added, “You hear the graphic allegations, and we know that would have been something that’s totally disrespectful of her as a woman. And I know the type of person he is. He totally respects women.”

The interview turns the preternaturally silent political spouse from meta-story — about how tough it is to come by information on Gloria Cain — to story.

And, presumably, it will settle any questions about her height.

As Herman Cain has defended himself against charges that he made unwanted comments and advances toward several women, he has said that it was comparisons to his wife’s height that led one woman to make allegations against him in a claim that was settled.

He has also said that his wife of 43 years — the two met as college students in Atlanta, where he attended Morehouse and she went to Morris Brown — remains “200 percent supportive of me,” and is “still 200 percent my wife.”

After Chicagoan Sharon Bialek’s news conference last week detailing harassment allegations, including that Cain groped her, he recalled what his wife told him over the phone: “The things that woman described, she said that doesn’t even sound like you, and I’ve known you for 45 years.” Cain said, “My own wife said that I wouldn’t do anything as silly as what that lady was talking about.”

For all her husband’s repeated invocations of her, Gloria Cain has remained the campaign’s mystery woman. Their hometown newspaper, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, says that aside from appearing with her husband as he announced his presidential run in May, she’s been “largely absent since.” The photo most of the media uses of her is from that announcement, and there appear to be no quotes from her in circulation. According to the paper, local voting records show she voted for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential primary.

The few details about her come from the candidate’s new biography, “This Is Herman Cain! My Journey to the White House.” Chapter 3, titled “Gloria,” begins with a passage from Proverbs about “a virtuous woman.” He talks about being first drawn to her good looks: “Gloria Etchison was beautiful. Let’s face it; I was first attracted by her looks. And then I figured out she was also smart.”