Video: Whoopi Vs. Sherri on Sexual Harassment

The hot topic of sexual harassment in the workplace caused some heated debate among the ladies of “The View” Monday.

The discussion was of course sparked by the latest twist in the Herman Cain harassment saga. Cain’s wife Gloria spoke out for the first time in an interview with Fox News that aired Monday night. She stood by the GOP presidential candidate, saying that there was no way the multiple allegations of harassment against him could be real.

George Washington University Battleground Poll released Monday found that GOP presidential hopedul Herman Cain was still leading the pack last week - but his support is tanking.

And a second poll, a CNN/ORC International survey, found Cain had tumbled all the way to third place.

The CNN poll showed ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich vaulting into a virtual tie with front-runner Mitt Romney.

Romney was edging Gingrich 24% to 22%, with Cain a distant thrid at 14%.

Cain’s poll collapse came amid mounting allegations from four women, two of whom recently went public: Sharon Bialek and Karen Kraushaar.

Kraushaar pocketed a five-figure settlement from the Cain-run National Restaurant Association in the 1990s.

The revelations have had an impact among Republican voters.

Among likely Republican voters surveyed Nov. 6 by POLITICO, Cain led the field with 40%.

A day later, he was third with 22%. By last Wednesday, that support was down to just 19% .

"It does appear that the stories are certainly hurting him," Republican pollster Ed Goeas of The Tarrance Group, who helped conduct the bipartisan poll, told POLITICO.

"As this moves forward, I think it does become more and more a deal-breaker."

Moreover, Cain's being clobbered by women voters.

In a theoretical head-to-head matchup, President Obama beats Cain by 9%. But women voters favor Obama over Cain by a whopping 18%.

A recent CBS News poll found Cain’s support among women has dwindled to 15%.

After talking about the interview briefly, Whoopi Goldberg brought up a controversial op-ed by writer Katie Roiphe in Sunday’s New York Times, which purported that behavior said to constitute sexual harassment is too broad and amorphous, and that “maybe it’s better to live and work with colorful or inappropriate comments, with irreverence, wildness, incorrectness, ease.”

The article instantly provoked a fierce backlash in the blogosphere, and Joy Behar initially seemed to have little time for Roiphe’s thesis. Behar said that it served to “minimize” the very real harassment and assault that women can be subjected to.

Goldberg said that anyone who is uncomfortable with, say, dirty jokes in the workplace should “walk away” if they hear them. But Sherri Shepherd took issue with this blanket advice.

“If a person in the position of power is doing the dirty jokes, it’s harder to say ‘I don’t like what you’re saying’ and walk out,” she said.” Goldberg objected to this. “I’m sorry, no!” she said. “That’s bull … you can walk away.” Shepherd pushed back, saying that people who walked out all the time would be noticed.

Goldberg dug in. “I don’t think it’s hard,” she said. “That’s not correct behavior! If you are being harassed by somebody you need to speak up.” She said that, if women didn’t, “then the issue is with you, because you don’t think enough of yourself to walk away.”

Whose side are you on?