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Posted on 10/04/2003 2:19:04 PM PDT by John Jorsett
CLOVIS, Calif. (Reuters) - Like a film superhero who survives knife, gun and grenade attacks, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger keeps going strong in his campaign to become California governor after battling anonymous allegations of sexual misconduct and a report of Nazi sympathies.
Bolstered by the presence of his television journalist wife, Maria Shriver, at a farm rally in the center of the state, the Republican front-runner accused Democratic Gov. Gray Davis Saturday of fighting a dirty campaign to save his job.
"They try to tear down your character; they try to tear down everything you stand for," he told a crowd of about 750 loud and enthusiastic supporters. "They have started a puke campaign. Davis knows how to do a dirty campaign. But he doesn't know how to run a state."
In Vienna, an Austrian magazine reported Schwarzenegger helped break up a neo-Nazi rally in 1964 when he was a young body-builder,
In the latest issue of NU magazine, prominent Austrian politician Alfred Gerstl said the then 17-year old Schwarzenegger and fellow body-builders "chased away the Nazis" during a neo-Nazi protest against the anti-fascist director of a teaching academy in Graz, Austria.
ACTOR IS FRONT-RUNNER
In Tuesday's vote, Californians will decide whether they will oust Davis in the second such recall in U.S. history. The second part of the ballot lists 135 replacement candidates, of which political neophyte Schwarzenegger has emerged as the front-runner in the same state that elevated actor Ronald Reagan to governor.
On Friday, the Schwarzenegger campaign handed out a statement quoting the actor as expressing admiration for Adolf Hitler in 1975.
"I don't see how anyone can admire Adolf Hitler," Davis told ABC television. "Any decent American has to be offended by that phrase. Adolph Hitler did nothing but shock our conscience, destroy millions of Jews and non-Jews, and is an abomination to any decent American."
At a rally in Oakland on Saturday, Davis seemed confident. His campaign officials said the latest internal polls of voters were starting to swing in his direction.
Yet the allegations may not change the outcome. "I look at it as part of the politics that go on, the dirty politics in the last days of the campaign," said Frank Cross, 39, who voted for Davis but was thinking about backing Schwarzenegger.
The actor's staff was hoping the campaign statement would provide a wider context for Schwarzenegger's remark on Hitler following New York Times and ABC News reports that reignited concerns about his past.
QUOTES CAME FROM FRIEND
The document quoted Schwarzenegger's close friend, documentary filmmaker George Butler, who helped cement the bodybuilder's legend in the 1970s with the film and book "Pumping Iron."
"I admired Hitler, for instance, because he came from being a little man with almost no formal education, up to power," Butler quoted the actor as saying in transcripts from 1975-1976 outtakes for the film. "And I admire him for being such a good public speaker and for his way of getting to the people and so on. But I didn't admire him for what he did with it."
The actor now says he despises Hitler and the Nazis.
Schwarzenegger's main Democratic rival on the replacement ballot has, however, tried to make an issue of the anonymous accusations of the actor's sexual harassment.
Schwarzenegger, saying he "behaved badly at times," issued an apology on Thursday in a move that could help sideline the controversy. He also said he would have apologized long ago to women he had groped -- had they said something.
Democrat Shriver, niece of Schwarzenegger hero President John Kennedy, was campaigning to help win over female voters and gave him an enthusiastic introduction. (With additional reporting by Gina Keating in Oakland)
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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ATTENTION: If you are a woman who was between the ages of 21 and 30 years old in the years spanning 1984 to 1995, with a tight and nice-smelling body, and were the slightest bit agressive in manner, and in consumption of various alcoholic beverages,and frequented the Miramar NAS Officers club during those years, there is a better than average chance that at one time or another, one or both of my hands has been on your ass.
If I offended you in any way, please forgive me, the bartender, The Budwieser Brewing Company, Visa of America and the US Navy for causing you any pain. I was young, dumb and horny, and you were, you were, uh,.... you were there.
I will be announcing my campaign for public office at the approprate time, but for now, I just wanted to clear that up, in case the LA Times decides to investigate the Dog.
Carry on, dammit.
Mr. "Vote for me 'Cause the Others Are Bad" is going to need to find himself another job.
Maybe he could become a TV personality....if only he had a personality.
He reminds me of an evil Barney Fife.
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