You gotta admit – Herman Cain is one gutsy bastard.

Talk about upping the ante: At his press conference Tuesday afternoon, Cain shot the moon (via the Los Angeles Times).

“The charges and the accusations, I absolutely reject,” Cain said. “They simply didn’t happen. They simply did not happen.”

Regarding Monday’s allegations by Sharon Bialek that he “reached under her skirt for her genitals and pushed her head toward his crotch in July 1997,” Cain had this to say:

“The fact is these anonymous allegations are false, and now the Democratic machine in America has brought forth this troubled woman to make false accusations, statements, many of which exceed common sense.”

Sorry, Herman, but what doesn’t exceed common sense is this: 1) The accusations are no longer anonymous; 2) the Democratic machine in America is fairly salivating for you to be the Republican presidential nominee. There’s no reason in the world they’d try to submarine your candidacy.

What’s most dazzling about Cain’s mutiny is that one credible piece of evidence could bring down the entire house of cards.

We should know pretty soon whether this is the mother of all bluffs. Or not.