Lawrence O'Donnell is a bit of a jackass, but he had an interesting interview with Cain yesterday. O'Donnell asked Cain why, in O'Donnell's words, Cain sat on the sidelines during the civil rights movement. O'Donnell garbled it a little bit, but he might have caught Cain in a few lies. I expect that we will hear more about this if Cain remains a frontrunner.

The allegation is that Cain's book implies that he was in high school during the civil rights movement and had the good sense to heed his father's admonition to stay out of trouble. If Cain said that, then he is lying. He was in college from the fall of 1963 through sometime in 1967, right smack in the middle of the civil rights era. He also said something else I find really curious. He said to O'Donnell, "Did you expect every black student and every black college in America to be out there?...You didn't know, Lawrence, what I was doing...maybe, just maybe, I had a sick relative!" Lawrence O'Donnell, Herman Cain Argue About The Civil Rights Movement (VIDEO) Well, did he or didn't he? According to O'Donnell, Cain's book seems to say otherwise. O'Donnell garbled this part a bit, but I bet there are plenty of reporters who will request a clarification.

Cain says a lot of things that don't make sense to me. Maybe he's lying. We shall see, I hope.