Gov. Grope a Go-Go
I was trying to avoid the California recall, but it is part of the Republican takeover strategy as Davis has alleged. He was set up with an amazingly brazen and well-orchestrated energy crisis (which Cheney and Bush blamed on environmentalists, if you recall) and this paved the way for Arnold and company.
Anyways, to diffuse the allegations, Arnold is relying on tactics proven effective by thousands if not millions of guilty yet still beloved spouses: Claim you don't remember (a woefull tale of drunkeness usually comes into play), apologize profusely for anything that might have happened when you weren't remembering, and promise to be the best damn (insert gender here) from now on. For good measure, bash whatever messenger might be handy.
This morning NPR played tape from one of Arnolds' rallies. An aid warmed up the crowd by asking rhetorically "Do we read the L.A. Times?" The crowd's answer, of course, was "No!"
I can't find Arnold's quote from the rally, but it indeed was the classic "I don't remember, but if I did anything wrong I'm sorry."
Here's the quote from yesterday, pulled from the
L.A. Times web site:
"So I want to say to you, yes, I have behaved badly sometimes. Yes, it is true that I was on rowdy movie sets, and I have done things that were not right, which I thought then was playful. But I now recognize that I have offended people. And to those people that I have offended, I want to say to them, I am deeply sorry about that, and I apologize."
He's just a crazy kid hanging with rowdy friends. Things happen. He's sorry. It didn't mean anything.
Asked later about the specific incidents in an interview on CNN, Schwarzenegger said: "I don't remember so many of the things that I was accused of having done."
Or perhaps you did them for publicity's sake, Arnold? Like the gang sex talk?
Arnold's from Hollywood. It's a whole different game
I'm gathering responses from Republicans, the straight talkin' folk who pursued Clinton to the point of impeachment over similar matters.
I liked this from
Kausfiles in reference to the trail blazed by Clinton:
Schwarzenegger stands on the shoulders of the gropers who came before him.
More from the L.A. Times:
"What we saw in the L.A. Times today was not an attack on Arnold Schwarzenegger," said Rep. David Dreier (R-San Dimas). "It was an attack on every single one of us who want to take back California."
The actor's major Republican recall opponent, state Sen. Tom McClintock of Thousand Oaks, said he viewed the accusations "with a high degree of skepticism," because they emerged so close to the election.
But "if true, these acts are reprehensible and inexcusable," he said. "And as the father of a 13-year-old daughter, I'd say to him, 'Get out of the race.' "
