Win One for the Groper (Dowd alert)

The New York Times ^ | 10/05/03 | Maureen Dowd

[Pokey78]

WASHINGTON

Well, there goes the Jewish women's vote.

Twin revelations of Arnold Schwarzenegger's groping and goose-stepping are not going to play well with some Californians. The androgynous Gray spent the weekend hissing at Arnold's excess testosterone, as Arnold tried a rope-a-grope strategy.

The governor had to be singing "Danke Schön" over tales of the Austrian's 70's foolery: playing Nazi marching songs; clicking his heels and pretending to be an SS officer; clowning as Hitler with comb as mustache; and praising the dictator's ambition and oratorical skills. A Davis aide slyly wondered if Mel Brooks was Arnold's campaign manager.

When I was in California, Democrats said that as soon as Mr. Schwarzenegger went up in the polls, the Davis camp was prepared to blast him on women and "play it out in all its seamy glory," as one well-connected Hollywood Democrat said.

When the star's female accusers were recycled in the L.A. Times, Democratic women's groups — already in full cry against Arnold for being boorish despite his un-Bushian moderate stances on women's issues — howled even louder. They rejected his apology and explanation that he was just being "playful" when he grabbed several left breasts out of left field over the decades.

Even before the latest charges, Hillary Clinton, by phone, and Ann Richards and the lawyer Gloria Allred, in person, joined Governor Davis at a bristly rally in West Hollywood with 200 female activists, including contingents from NOW and Planned Parenthood, chanting about Arnold's sins.

At the Davis rally, Senator Clinton chose not to defend the groper who was not her husband. Ms. Richards chose not to defend the groper who was not a Democrat; in 1998, the former Texas governor shrugged off Mr. Clinton's louche behavior: "If we try to retire every man from office who's done what he did, we wouldn't need affirmative action."

Now Republicans who thundered against Bill — not Arnold, who scorned impeachment as a waste of time and money — argue that peccadilloes are not relevant to governing. And feminists who backed Bill are ushering Arnold gropees up to the Democratic microphones.

Cheekbones jutting, Maria Shriver played the Tammy Wynette-Hillary role with nerve and verve, reassuring Republican women in Newport Beach: "You can listen to the people who have never met Arnold, or who met him for five seconds 30 years ago. Or you can listen to me."

Certainly, the bodybuilder-turned-phenom has had moments of being, to use David Letterman's word, a lunkhead. But I find the selective outrage of feminists just as offensive.

Feminism died in 1998 when Hillary allowed henchlings and Democrats to demonize Monica as an unbalanced stalker, and when Gloria Steinem defended Mr. Clinton against Kathleen Willey and Paula Jones by saying he had merely made clumsy passes, then accepted rejection, so there was no sexual harassment involved. As to his dallying with an emotionally immature 21-year-old, Ms. Steinem noted, "Welcome sexual behavior is about as relevant to sexual harassment as borrowing a car is to stealing one."

Surely what's good for the Comeback Kid is good for the Terminator.

It was no surprise on Friday that Mr. S was backing off his promise to release those "Springtime for Hitler" outtakes from George Butler's 1977 documentary "Pumping Iron." No dummy, he knew years ago his "Nazi stuff" could be trouble. He bought up the incriminating evidence, 100 hours of histrionic interviews, for a mil, and worked with the Simon Wiesenthal Center, giving it a mil in guilt gilt.

I asked my friend Leon Wieseltier, who knows a lot about Judaism and politics and women, about Arnold.

"Schwarzenegger is obviously not anti-Semitic or an admirer of genocide," he said. "Hitler does not appear to have been his moral ideal, but his business model. His old fondness for the Führer is just another expression of the animating principle of his life and movies: the worship and steady acquisition of power. Sacramento is simply the biggest Hummer he can buy."

Or, if Maria is right, Arnold will be a "smart, innovative, disciplined, determined . . . can-do" leader, trying to give something back to the state where he arrived penniless.

Besides, if we ever hear the "Horst Wessel Song" drifting from Governor Schwarzenegger's office in Sacramento, there's always the blitzkrieg option: the recall of the recall.

[Pokey78]

---

From Oxblog:

IMMUTABLE LAWS OF DOWD

1. Ashcroft never deserves credit.

2. Offering constructive solutions to problems, instead of whining endlessly about them, is a sign of weakness.

3. The People Magazine principle: all political phenomena can be explained with reference solely to caricatures of the personalities involved ("Dubya" is stupid; "Poppy" is an aristocrat; Cheney is macho-man; etc.). Any reference to the common good or even to old-fashioned politicking is, like, so passe.

4. It is much better to be cute than coherent.

5. Maureen knows best. Her long years as a columnist (doing basically what your great-aunt Tillie does in the nursing home bull sessions, but getting paid for it) have given her deep insight into foreign relations, politics, welfare, the Constitution, and all other topics. To disagree with Maureen in any way is not only a sign of being wrong, it's a hallmark of pure evil...or at least membership in the NRA, which is pretty much the same thing.

6. It is usually possible and always desirable to name-drop and name-call in the same sentence.

7. The particulars of my consumer-driven, shamefully self-involved life reveal universal truths.

---

Explanation of the Dowd/Douglas connection: by Miss Marple- 2/11/03

Ms. Dowd was escorted around New York and DC for many months by one Michael Douglas of Hollywood fame and fortune. She got to go to all the best parties, was photographed for the tabloids, and was picking out a gown to wear at the Oscars. Of course, Michael had become interested in her during Clinton's impeachment, when she had written some very anti-Clinton columns. After a few weeks of the Michael treatment, she began to write anti-Starr, ant-Newt columns, ignoring Clinton.

Then Clinton was acquitted by the Senate. In an amazing coincidence, Michael Douglas dropped Ms. Dowd like a hot potato, and instead picked up a hot tomato, Catherin Zeta-Jones, who subsequently bore him a son and they were married.

Ms. Dowd cannot get over her tragic loss. Her columns are increasingly anti-Bush, in the hope of impressing her lost love, Michael.

In addition, we think she has a secret crush on the President and is trying to get him to pay attention to her. Ha!

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[Anti-Christ is Hillary]

I am very confused!!!!!!!!! I thought that the Democrats were the party of Socialism. I know Arnald did not love or like Hitler, but if he did, since Hitler is the Godfather of the Socialist Party, I would think that he would get EVERY Democrat vote. They love Socialism.

[Dane]

Whew, this article by the Dowder should become the text book definition of schizophrenia, IMO.

[aculeus]

The Lonely Passion of Maureen Dowd.

[Diogenesis]

"The governor had to be singing "Danke Schön" over tales of the Austrian's 70's foolery: playing Nazi marching songs; clicking his heels and pretending to be an SS officer; clowning as Hitler with comb as mustache; and praising the dictator's ambition and oratorical skills. "

Had not heard that anywhere.

Could this be ANOTHER liar at the NYTimes?

[deport]

Here's the wannabe groped one's column

[Pukin Dog]

Oh man.

Will somebody, ANYBODY, just please have sex with that woman so she can calm down?

Somebody needs to give one for the team before Ms Dowd gets a licence to carry.

[Junior_G]

Ok, I read the whole thing. What was the point of the article?

[Ann Archy]

Memo to Maria: These are your fellow Demoncrat girlfriends.....nice aren't they??? What do you think about your Party?....Nice, isn't it???

[annyokie]

I think you are asking too much of the menfolk here.

[Pukin Dog]

No point, just Dowd's weekly cry for help.

[Amerigomag]

Twin revelations of Arnold Schwarzenegger's groping and goose-stepping are not going to play well with some Californians

It's bad enough that Dowd spews this gargbage but it's almost as shameless that the GOP would support a candidate that provides such a rich target enviornment.

[Pukin Dog]

Okay, then. How about a woman with power tools? Someone needs to be a hero.

[annyokie]

LOL

[laconic]

Anne Richards put down her bottle long enough to lecture Arnold Schwartzenegger on anything other than the dangers of alcohol? Hillary Clinton condemned him as unfit for office because he groped women? H'mmm.

[ex-Texan]

Ms. Dowd needs to grow a brain. Bill Clinton was a proven serial sexual predator and violent rapist. Moreover, he lied about his sexual history and even committed perjury. Yet -- Not a single word ever escaped Dowd's lips critical of Bubba the Groper.

In short, she is a Democratic Party Hack. 'Nuff said.

[FITZ]

The androgynous Gray spent the weekend hissing at Arnold's excess testosterone

Only democrats are convinced that describing a man as "androgynous" is a compliment of some kind.

[FITZ]

Feminism died in 1998 when Hillary allowed henchlings and Democrats to demonize Monica as an unbalanced stalker, and when Gloria Steinem defended Mr. Clinton against Kathleen Willey and Paula Jones by saying he had merely made clumsy passes, then accepted rejection, so there was no sexual harassment involved. As to his dallying with an emotionally immature 21-year-old, Ms. Steinem noted, "Welcome sexual behavior is about as relevant to sexual harassment as borrowing a car is to stealing one."

But she does make some good points. The feminists really gave up their right to ever comment on any other sexual harassment case after defending a rapist.