A strange report from early July about presidential candidate Herman Cain's troubles in Iowa mysteriously noted "swirling rumors between Cain's staff and volunteers in the Hawkeye State accusing each other of affairs, homosexuality and professional misconduct." And that was it! So what kind of gay shit was going down on the Cain Train? We're starting to learn.

The Associated Press reports today, in a mildly complicated tale of Scandal, that the Cain campaign may have been lying about the role of a top strategist due to his public history of being gay — and a corrupt gay, to boot! — to avoid scaring off socially conservative voters ahead of August's Iowa straw poll. The campaign's former Iowa straw poll director, Kevin Hall, spilled the (alleged!) beans in a letter and testimony while applying for unemployment benefits last week.

The secret gay was Scott Toomey, former treasurer of Cain's political action committee and senior political adviser. Toomey's "sexual orientation and allegations of misconduct in his role as treasurer of the Madison Pride Board, which hosted an annual parade in Wisconsin's capital, 'had become an issue' for several Cain supporters," according to Hall's testimony. So the campaign's communications director instructed staffers to tell anyone who asked that Toomey was no longer involved with the campaign, even though he was still apparently quite involved.

Hall said he was not bothered by Toomey's background but aides knew it exposed Cain to charges of hypocrisy.

"A conservative candidate, Mr. Cain is on the record as stating that he believes homosexuality is a sin and a choice. And they know that, if his top adviser, his highly paid adviser, is openly gay that it would cast a negative light on Mr. Cain and would cost him in his efforts to become president," he testified. "Basically the campaign was trying to cover up the fact that Mr. Toomey was still involved. They asked ... me to help them cover up that fact."

This alleged cover-up scandal could very well knock Herman Cain out of the frontrunner position! Oh... wait.

[Image via AP]