Some of the Dirt on Arnie Emerges...

[Marlena]

Holy mackerel - a Republican candidate who once bared it all for a reporter, on the record:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2003Aug28.html

The news story will give you the link to the Smoking Gun story, which in turn will provide you a link to the original 1977 interview. I've read both of the latter but won't provide the links directly here, as Mothering is a family site. He makes his life from age 18 through 29 sound like one big sex party, complete with orgies, drugs and the rest. It's pretty impressive.

[Marlena]

Oh, and check this out (from the Washington Post story linked above):

Today, the campaign director for conservative state Sen. Tom McClintock (R), who is also running in the recall election, declined to comment about Schwarzenegger's remarks in the adult magazine. "We're not interested in his secret sex life," John Feliz said. "What we're interested in is his secret political views." Asked if he thought the interview is relevant to the current race, Feliz replied, "I don't think so."

Are you kidding??? Sex is REALLY easy to sell to the public (witness the Clinton scandals), but political viewpoints? Forget it! Then again, I guess Arnie is probably widely viewed as a stud, and so his lifestyle will likely be forgiven, at least by those inclined to vote for him based more on his star quality and not on his political credentials (such as they may be).

[SpiralWoman]

Do I think his bragging in a men's magazine 26 yrs ago will hurt him? Maybe, but I honestly think it's a side issue to his current social policy positions.

...been thinking about Arnie alot lately, re: political strategy. My thinking about the CA recall is that the GOP machine needs a Republican govenor so they can deliver the CA electoral votes to Shrub. You know, the same drill as FL last time, tamper with the election rolls by removing the "felons" etc. So, here you have the recall/ demonization of Gray Davis & voila, a Republican governor. Except I really don't know if Arnie is their man! Have you heard his radio interview? He is so socially liberal, I don't think any hardcore Republicans are going to be voting for him. So, him running is actually splitting the Republican vote & making it more likely that, if enough people vote yes to the recall, then Bustamante (did I spell that right?) will probably have the majority of the votes. Maybe it's the Republicans that are digging up the dirt on him to send voters to the other GOP candidate, hmmmmmm.

[Tigerchild]

I have similar thoughts, SpiralWoman!

In fact, I indulged my mean side and laughed out loud when the originator of this recall campaign blubbered as he resigned the race. Seems someone thought they could just buy themselves a governorship outright (instead of buying it through campaign funds like good politicians do!).

If a Republican wins, I hope it's Mr. S...that would be soooo funny just to see the local party officials having to suck up to him. On pure aesthetics, I'm kinda rooting for Arianna--I love little feisty loudmouthed women. (Ahem...nothing about that could be narcisstic, could it? No way!)

Golem and the Preciouss Party still has my allegience, though.

[Marlena]

I thought Huffington was actually tall - 6 ft or so.

Re Arnie's excuse, the problem for Clinton is that he'd not have been able to use the past tense. Nevertheless, yes, I agree that some honesty on the issue would've been HIGHLY appropriate and quite possibly would also have done Clinton less political damage in the long run.

Re the recall race, Arnie is really NOT the Republican's man, largely for the reasons SW cites. Nevertheless, I highly doubt that mainstream Republicans, at least, are behind the dishing of this dirt - Arnie is far and away the Republican's best hope, and even he's running behind Busamante (last I saw, in any event).

Do read the actual interview, though - it's a hoot!

[Quirky]

OK, I think this quotation passes the family friendly test, and it had me

Q: Are you serious about becoming a professional actor?

A: ....I realize there's only one Arnold in the world, that there's never been an Arnold before, and the one thing that won't work on screen is my being an ass-kicker. If Robert DeNiro kills in Taxi Driver, it's perfect, because he's a little guy and people are 100 percent behind him. For me, that isn't the right kind of role, because I'm big and therefore have to play the opposite kind of guy. . . . I probably should play the victim.

Guess he got over that notion!

[lorijds]

Hmmmm, in 1977 I was 6 years old. I'm not sure that someone's sex that long ago has much to do with their politics today; unless of course they are buying children or something like that. I don't want anyone judging me on what I did in 1977, in regards to that sort of thing (which would be very little, I suspect. I know I did have a personal problem of picking my nose and eating my boogers at around that age; quickly broke that habit when I went to school...please don't hold it against me!).

Glad I'm not in California, though. We have enough of a problem here...