WELL, IT'S Wednesday. By this time, Arnold may or may not be the governor of California. I am not a Californian and don't really have any vested interest in the recall election. But in the days before the election, even I could smell the "trash politics" all the way from Virginia.
Schwarzenegger came under fire in the final days of his campaign as allegations of sexual harassment, many dating back to the seventies, emerged from one woman after another. Oh, and apparently he likes Hitler, too.
The media had a field day with reports that Schwarzenegger had praised Hitler in an interview with director George Butler while making the 1970s documentary, "Pumping Iron." The interview apparently never made it to the documentary, but appeared in a book proposal circulated by Butler in 1997.
Butler, however, has come out and said that the quotes were taken out of context and, well, he might have actually misquoted him to begin with. He definitively stated that "Arnold never said anything anti-Semitic."
One need only look at Schwarzenegger's past actions to confirm this. These allegations were furthered by the fact that Schwarzenegger's father was a member of the Nazi party in Austria. But Schwarzenegger has repeatedly denounced and distanced himself from his father's political affiliations. He has worked with and donated more than $750,000 to the Simon Weisenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights organization, and even received their Leadership Award in 1991. But I suppose he could single-handedly "teh-minate" anti-Semitism and still be judged by the actions of his father.
This brings us to the issue of Arnold's rowdy behavior. Several women have accused Schwarzenegger of sexual harassment between 1975 and 2000. On Oct. 2, Schwarzenegger admitted to having "behaved badly sometimes" and apologized to "those people I have offended." He later denounced some of the allegations.
With Schwarzenegger's admission of questionable behavior, many of these allegations of sexual misconduct are probably true. And, well, given the nature of last-minute political accusations, some are probably not true. Now, I am in no way condoning Schwarzenegger's behavior -- it is a dark reflection of his character. I just take issue with the timing of these allegations.
Many of these incidents allegedly happened over 30 years ago. These women, however, did not come out publicly at the time. They didn't come out publicly when Schwarzenegger started making movies. They didn't even come out publicly when he announced his candidacy for governor. They came out publicly with these allegations three days before the actual election.
Suspicious timing, isn't it? It's precisely that which leads me to believe that some of these allegations are nothing more than mud-slinging tactics. And the women who were truly harassed only demoralize their cases by waiting so long to bring the incidents to light. These women, for their own good, should have spoken out the second Schwarzenegger announced his candidacy for governor.
Actually, I find it interesting that the alleged victims failed to announce these accusations before Schwarzenegger's campaign. He was, after all, a prominent figure in Hollywood for several years. But perhaps these women realize that Hollywood has a different standard of what is acceptable behavior. After all, director Roman Polanski, indicted in 1977 for drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl, received a standing ovation at the 2003 Academy Awards. Interesting how several of those clapping movie stars are currently denouncing Schwarzenegger's actions.
And speaking of discrepancies, let's review the reactions to the sexual conduct of my favorite president to mock, President Bill Clinton. I find it interesting that Clinton's numerous sexual scandals were ultimately dismissed as his "private life" and part of the "vast right-wing conspiracy" and things of that nature. Does anyone remember Kathleen Willey or Juanita Broderick? No, probably not, since their accusations of rape against Clinton didn't seem to make too many waves in the liberal (yes, that's right, liberal) media and have seemed to be excused by the same people now denouncing Schwarzenegger. I wonder, for example, how many members of CODEPINK -- a leftist feminist group currently following Schwarzenegger around with signs saying things like "Grope This: You Lose" -- voted for Clinton back in the day. Perhaps Schwarzenegger's rowdy behavior wouldn't be such a big deal if "Republican" didn't follow his name.
I'm not really interested in whether or not Schwarzenegger won the election. And I in no way condone his alleged behavior. But I do believe that he was the victim of suspicious "trash politics," as he likes to refer to it. And with the steadily-approaching presidential elections, we can only expect to see more of it, and on a larger scale. But I guess that's politics.
(Kristin Brown's column appears Wednesdays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at kbrown@cavalierdaily.com.)
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