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Posted on 10/04/2003 10:39:00 PM PDT by calcowgirl
THE OVERVIEW
Vote Nears, and Themes Are Attack and Defend
FRESNO, Calif., Oct. 4 — Turning up the heat in the already fevered California recall campaign, Gov. Gray Davis today called Arnold Schwarzenegger's reported groping of women "clearly a crime" and said that electing him governor would plunge the state deeper into political crisis.
Beginning a last-ditch, three-day tour of the state before the election on Tuesday, Mr. Davis sharply escalated his attacks on Mr. Schwarzenegger for his behavior toward women, suggesting that some of the incidents constituted sexual battery.
He also called Mr. Schwarzenegger's favorable comments about Hitler during filming of a 1977 documentary "unconscionable."
Mr. Davis added: "Taken together, these things do raise serious questions about his ability to lead the state."
Mr. Schwarzenegger, continuing his bus tour of the state, angrily criticized The Los Angeles Times for publishing the claims of women who said he touched them sexually against their will or otherwise humiliated them. The newspaper reported the accusations of six women on Thursday and on Saturday published accounts from three others.
Mr. Schwarzenegger suggested that the paper was in league with Mr. Davis and other Democrats to destroy his candidacy, which before the accusations had begun to take on an air of inevitable success.
Mr. Schwarzenegger accused Mr. Davis of conducting "puke politics" and the newspaper of printing "yellow journalism."
Mr. Schwarzenegger appeared outside Fresno at a rally on Saturday and was joined by his wife, Maria Shriver, for the first time since the accusations surfaced.
"They've started the puke campaign, because that's exactly what they know how to do," he said at the rally. "Davis always knows how to run a dirty campaign but he doesn't know how to run a state."
Mr. Schwarzenegger has acknowledged misbehavior toward women on movie sets and elsewhere, but said his actions were meant to be "playful" and were misconstrued. On Thursday, he issued a general apology without admitting specifics.
But on Saturday he emphatically denied the newest accusations as he barnstormed across the state.
In a pool interview arrangement, he said, "The latest accusations that I read today are absolutely untrue."
He added that "some of them, like the ones that they said today, are absolutely wrong, they're false."
Mr. Schwarzenegger and his aides accused The Los Angeles Times of being a tool of the Davis campaign, publishing a spate of negative stories late in the campaign to throw the election Mr. Davis's way.
"This is unprecedented gutter, last-minute, gotcha journalism by the largest newspaper in the state," said Rob Stutzman, a spokesman for Mr. Schwarzenegger. "They're unfit to own a printing press, and we're not going to take it."
Dean Baquet, the managing editor of The Los Angeles Times, said the paper stood by its reporting. "First of all, none of the women in the first story came from the candidates, we found them on our own," Mr. Baquet said.
As for the timing of the first story, published on Thursday, he said, "We put the story in the paper when it was finished."
He added: "Keep in mind, after the story ran, Schwarzenegger acknowledged much of it."
In two appearances in Oakland on Saturday, Mr. Davis surrounded himself with high-profile Democratic women, including California Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader.
He said of the accusations against Mr. Schwarzenegger: "Some of those events are clearly a crime. Electing a governor who might have committed a crime is obviously going to distract the state from the work it has to do."
He stopped short of calling for an investigation. It is likely, however, that the statute of limitations has run out.
Mr. Davis appeared exhausted by the frenzied pace of the past several days. But he also seemed surprisingly upbeat for someone who recent polls say may be close to political oblivion, delivering a forceful defense of his administration in several appearances on Saturday.
Part of the reason may be his campaign's internal polls, which indicated that the revelations about Mr. Schwarzenegger had significantly damaged him and improved Mr. Davis's chances. An aide said that an overnight poll taken Friday showed the vote on whether to recall the governor was within the margin of sampling error. Other polls this week showed a gap of 10 or more points between those favoring recall and those opposing it.
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Gee, y'think???
I always thought they were non-partisan!
Then charge him with something you pencil-necked geek! We can't be rid of this sack of grease soon enough.
This, despite the fact that the NY Times retracted the story.
Davis is not only unfit as a governor, I'd like to see him recalled as a human being.
He can run for a position as a chipmonk.
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