TheAgitator.com
“It’s Not a Tumor.”
Tuesday, October 7th, 2003Recall exit polls point to a comfortable “yes” margin, and a comfortable win for Der Arnold. A few thoughts:
California’s conservatives are completely fucking clueless. For about a decade now, they’ve been sacking moderate Republicans who could actually win in the primaries in favor of wing nuts who then get trounced in the general election. Along comes the only feasible scenario in which they could put one of their own into office, and the state Republican party lines up behind the squishy movie actor, all starry-eyed like.
This is a guy, let’s not forget, whose previous forays into politics involved overseeing federally-funded intitiatves to get America in shape, and a ballot measure promising taxpayer-funded after school activities. Both touted, I might add, in this interest of the children.
This is the guy who’s going to put the state budget in order?
Ramesh Ponnuru made a great point over at NRO yesterday. Moving left to get 51% of the vote is strategy. Moving left to get 38% of the vote is selling your soul.
And let’s not forget how Davis got elected to begin with. The state’s conservatives blackballed Richard Riordan in the primaries in favor of the atrocious Bill Simon. Well, congratulations. You now have a guy every bit as liberal as Dick Riordan, but without the executive experience, smarts or political savvy. You also have a guy with huge potential to both embarass your party and hurt your president in 2004, and you made yourselves look like complete hypocrites by standing behind a lecherous womanizer after ragging on Clinton for the last ten years over similar offenses.
So what of the serial groping charges? Come on. Does anyone really believe they aren’t true? Okay, perhaps a few of them are digging for gold. But there’s no question the guy’s a creep.
Many years ago I read an interview of Arnold and his wife shortly after they were married. Shriver was desribing how they met. I don’t remember the exact details, but I do remember her saying their first encounter involved him patting her on the backside and telling her, straight-up, “You have a great ass.”
Think you’re the only one he met that way, Maria?
The most laughable aspect of this has been how conservatives have railed against the media for such “dirty politics.” Give me a break. If Arnold had actually been a Kennedy instead of merely married to one, conservatives would be lapping this stuff up, and calling for his head.
All of this matters little to me, of course. I suppose Tom McClintock was the most attractive candidate of the three highest pollers, and I think the California GOP would have done well to get behind him. But even he has proven disappointing, rambling on about singing hymns ,and employing a chief of staff too eager to mix his baby Jesus with his public policy for my taste.
Also, what’s up with McClintock’s eyeballs? Every time he was on TV, he had the crazy eyes going, like he’d just seen Bustamante naked. Only both eyes were never looking the same way at the same time.
If Arnold wins, keep an eye on the White House and keep an eye on the polls (if you’re McClintock, you can do both at the same time!). My guess is that Bush will continue to steer far clear of Arnold unless and until either a) the budget gets turned around, or, b) the budget stays in crisis mode, but California voters remain starstruck, and continue to blame Davis for it.
If Arnold can hold on to his popularity, however, California falls into play for Bush, and he’ll do everything he can to latch on to him. That includes lots of campaign appearances together and, unfortunately for the very soul of humanity, lots more lame puns from Arnold’s movies — all the way through Election Day, 2004.
So true about McClintock’s eyes. Every time I see him it looks like he’s just been brained with a baseball bat. He makes sense on a lot of things, but I wouldn’t vote for him (if I lived in California) just because I wouldn’t want to think it was the Shining every time this man gave a speech.
Someone sounds cranky. You trash the whole senario for Republicans then end on the only true note, the only one that really matters nationally: “If Arnold can hold on to his popularity, however, California falls into play for Bush…” EXACTLY. Go team Go.
Radley,
Have a cigarette, A Cup of coffee, and…
CALM DOWN.
Instead of sounding insightful in your words, you just sound angry.
I believe most of the accusations are true, but I wonder why they didn’t pop up until the week before the election? Some of the women who were groped worked with him several times after he groped (I hate that word) them. Why didn’t they come forward when it happened or just refuse to work for/with him again? Why didn’t the “victims” of the most recent atrocities sue him for sexual harassment? He has after all been a very popular and very wealthy man for quite some time now. Could it be that they also viewed it as playful at the time?
Arnold admitted that he has acted poorly in the past and apologized if he had offended anyone. I think it is refreshing to hear a political figure admit wrongdoings and apologize. This was obviously a smear campaign timed to try to derail his candidacy. The L.A. Times failed to run stories about Gray Davis and his violence toward staffers since he has been governor, but thought it extremely important (4 front page stories in 4 days) to go thirty years into Arnold’s past to find women who were so traumatized that he grabbed their breasts or ass that they continued to work for him and didn’t report these “crimes”. Please!!!
I was not aware of the interview with arnolds wife:
“their first encounter involved him patting her on the backside and telling her, straight-up, “You have a great ass.”
If this is true then He is an ass!
Someone gropes you and you’re offended, sue them. If it’s bad enough, call the cops. If you don’t do either, but bring it up 20 years later, I take that to imply that you didn’t think it was a big deal at the time.
Let me get this straight, Arnold told Maria she had a great ass and he’s a monster for it? She obviously was not very put off by it, after all she did marry him and they have been married for a long time. I would certainly not take that approach, but since when is it a crime to tell someone they have a great ass. It is truly amazing how blown out of proportion this has become. If Maria was not offended by this why are others becoming offended for her?
If telling women they have great ass’s worked for me, I would be Hughe Hefner by now.
Damn.
Arnold will not be able to do much because he has to deal with all the pinkos in the CA legislature. And he’s a Republican which is just as bad as a pinko. This will work in his favor though as he’ll be able to get more cash for his next movie though; ‘Conan: The Whiney Politican’
The best person for the job of course would have been Ned Roscoe of the Libertarian Party. Too bad the people of CA aren’t bright enough to know that.
Anyone see Jackson on CNN last night? What a freaking piece of work this guy is. Rush gets beat up for calling out the media on McNabb and this guy gets time on national TV to pimp his narrow minded view of dividing the people by race, creed, physical abilities and even how they wipe their freaking asses after shitting in a federally regulated toilet.
And people still think their isn’t a ‘liberal’ bias.
you sound bitter radley. fire one up, and just be thankful you don’t live in what will one day be the pacific ocean.
This is California after all, Hollywood reigns, what do you expect Radley?
Fangsign:
Liberal media bias? Of the two people you mentioned, which is given a daily podium by the ‘liberal media’? Rush’s was a publicity stunt worked to perfection.
Well, we in Britain have had a bunch of actors in power for the past six years. It is called the Blair government.
As for saying he admired his future wife’s ass, why all this outbreak of prudery? Surely the real problems with Arnie are the fact that he is potentially wobbly on things that libertarians should care for: 2nd Amendment (he’s pro gun control), taxes (he may not cut em), spending (he may be dragged into shabby compromises), and business regulations (he may find it hard to be radical).
I must say, reading about Arnie’s victory here in London, it is refreshing to see how the usual political snobs have been outraged. But Radley, as the author of a great article on “South Park Republicans”, I am a bit taken aback at the scolding tone of your article. Go have a beer.
Regards, Johnathan Pearce of wwww.samizdata.net
Roscoe got less votes than Larry Flint and Gary Coleman as well as about 20 others. That’s some funny shit.
This is a little jumbled but it is the order in which the candidates finished and their vote totals. I stopped at Roscoe because the list goes far beyond him.
Candidate Party Votes Percent
View Map
Statewide
Arnold Schwarzenegger Rep 3,624,154 48.3
Cruz M. Bustamante Dem 2,400,264 32.0
Tom McClintock Rep 996,968 13.3
Peter Miguel Camejo Grn 209,189 2.8
Arianna Huffington Ind 42,288 0.6
Peter V. Ueberroth Rep 21,661 0.3
Larry Flynt Dem 15,155 0.3
Gary Coleman Ind 12,549 0.2
George B. Schwartzman Ind 10,788 0.2
Mary Cook Ind 9,855 0.2
Bruce Martin Margolin Dem 7,874 0.2
Bill Simon Rep 7,746 0.2
John Christopher Burton Ind 5,855 0.0
David Laughing Horse Robinson Dem 5,683 0.0
Van Vo Rep 5,399 0.0
Leo Gallagher Ind 4,784 0.0
Cheryl Bly-Chester Rep 4,460 0.0
Lawrence Steven Strauss Dem 4,330 0.0
Ronald Jason Palmieri Dem 3,729 0.0
Calvin Y. Louie Dem 3,203 0.0
Badi Badiozamani Ind 2,940 0.0
Audie E. Bock Dem 2,845 0.0
Ralph A. Hernandez Dem 2,698 0.0
Dan Feinstein Dem 2,560 0.0
Edward Thomas Kennedy Dem 2,544 0.0
Bob McClain Ind 2,487 0.0
James Henry Green Dem 2,445 0.0
Angelyne Ind 2,244 0.0
Garrett Gruener Dem 2,151 0.0
Jerome Kunzman Ind 2,138 0.0
Jim Weir Dem 2,052 0.0
Ivan Alexander Hall III Grn 2,027 0.0
Ned Fenton Roscoe Lib 1,961 0.0
Dude, lighten the fuck up. Be happy, we finally got rid of that freak Davis. No, Arnold is not perfect. He is, however inexperienced, signifigantly better than the crazy-eyed, bible-thumping McClintock.
Qmony
Behind the Orange Curtain
Radley, Baby!
Lighten up. It’s politics not anything important. I wouldn’t trust a politician(republican or democrat) to take out my trash let alone walk my dog. And let’s not even begin to talk about their staff, hangers on etc.
Just kick back, have a beer, light a spliff and enjoy a laugh. Politics is meant to amuse, not anger.
ps. You’d have more luck with the chicks if you stopped being such a pansy ass, I mean, nice guy. It worked for Arnold!
Well, Radley, I don’t blame you for being upset…whatever, feel the way you want.
What I don’t understand why liberty-types don’t like McClintock. Is his appearance really why you don’t like him? Doesn’t that seem as arbitrary as Arnold winning by celebrity? Yah, he’s the “right-wing crazy” straw man everyone kept railing on — he’s very religious and one of his senior staffers has some wierd ideas. But he was the only electable candidate that was on point on every issue.
Despite being religious, he’s a big advocate for medicinal marijuana laws and repeal of felony drug laws. He actually had proposed budget cuts to address the deficit, is a committed supply-sider, took the “no new tax” pledge, wants to liberalize the energy markets, would’ve reformed worker’s comp, has state office experience…
You can peg him as something he’s not all you want, but he is hardcore and a libertarian’s dream candidate. If success for the nat’l GOP (Bush) was your endgame, well, you should’ve not wanted the recall to go through at all, and once it did, you would’ve been better off if Cruz won, so that a Dem is left holding the reigns when California is still in disarray next year.
Moreover, it takes a Republican to raise taxes in California.
I like your articles better than your blog. In your blog, you sound like a cranky 7th grader. Your articles are well formed and insightful. I will stick to those.
Ah-nold wins
My take — (how many can you stand? At least I’ll be brief) — Be careful what you wish for, I guess, is the theme here…..the Republicans have gotten a governor with an (R) behind his name, at least in…
Ah-nold wins
My take — (how many can you stand? At least I’ll be brief) — Be careful what you wish for, I guess, is the theme here…..the Republicans have gotten a governor with an (R) behind his name, at least in…
Re: McClintock
I voted for Ned Roscoe, and I’d do it again, being a rather rabid partisan Libertarian and Libertarian volunteer. That said, if I was going to vote major I would have voted for McClintock, the most ethical and libertarian leaning man in (state or higher) level government this side of Ron Paul. Yes he’s pro-life (I respectfully agree to disagree with anyone who is, but it still bothers me personally to vote for a pro-life candidate), yes he talks a bit much about public works projects, but at the same time he’s rock solid on taxes, rock solid on guns (“No [I would not enact any new gun laws]. I support the inherent right of self defense as guaranteed in the second ammendment” -LA Times, Oct 5), and for a Republicrat he’s even made some very good noises on the drug war, including absolute and and even acerbic support for Prop. 215 (our state’s medical marijuana initiative). Furthermore, unlike anyone else (again this side of Ron Paul), love him or hate him McClintock _stands for something_. He has principles, and integrity, and honor, and he stands by them no matter what. Give me a dose of that over power hungry hacks any day.
-Bryan Lackey
Vice Chair/Outreach Director, East San Gabriel Valley LP
Rumour has it that Mc Clintock is going to challenge Senator Boxer. I’m not sure if she can be beat, but I’d love to see Mc Clintock take her on. You have to admit that any debates they might have would be great!
I think the fact that Mc Clintock did not drop out of the race has already helped his future in politics. He IS a man of integrity and will fight for what he believes in. Barbara Boxer, man someone get her out of there, and take Sheila Jackson Lee too!
Barbara Boxer is a lunatic, but I don’t believe California could bring itself to putting a pro-life candidate into the Senate at this time. The pro-choice groups would certainly remind the voters over and over how much influence the Senate has over the confirmation of judges and this would make it difficult for McClintock to get elected. With the retirement of Hollings and possibly Graham the Democrats will fight tooth and nail to hold on to all Senate seats, because if they lose many more they can no longer force supermajorities on the confirmation of judges. If Bush is reelected and the Democrats lose five Senate seats we would see the judges that have been fillibustered go right back up. Not to mention any Supreme Court nominations that would certainly take place during the next four years.
That was way off of the original topic but it goes to McClintock’s chances against Boxer.
I’m confused. Wasn’t it just four or five years ago liberals were telling us that this sex stuff was a private matter?
Now, apparently, morals have changed on the left so quickly.
Apparently Arnold subscribes to the theory “You’re only as young as the women you feel”
Dude, Chill!
If the groping charges were recent, like within the last 3 to 4 years, I would be concerned. But Late 70′s?!? Come on! Next you’ll be hearing that so-and-so is unfit for office because he and Suzie were caught playing “doctor” when he was 5.
You’ve been scaring me of late with some of you’re blogs.
“You now have a guy every bit as liberal as Dick Riordan, but without the executive experience, smarts or political savvy.”
You think executive experience, smarts and political savvy improve a liberal? Give me an innefective liberal over an effective one any day.
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