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Arnold's bid for total recall puts conservatives in bind (ROEPER ALERT)
Chicago Sun-Times ^ | August 7, 2003 | RICHARD "DOPEY" ROEPER SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

Posted on 08/07/2003 6:11:53 PM PDT by Chi-townChief

Seven columns for the price of one: Like just about everyone in the media, I was stunned by Arnold Schwarzenegger's announcement Wednesday evening that he WILL be a candidate for governor of California after all. I really thought that if Ah-nold was going to become "The Running Man," he wouldn't have done it via a taped appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." Kudos to Leno for getting the scoop, but why didn't Arnold opt for a live announcement and press conference with wall-to-wall coverage, held at a more deadline-friendly hour in a more serious venue?

But now I have a question for all the conservatives, in California and across the nation, who believe Schwarzenegger will make a fine candidate: If you think this actor's views should be taken seriously, then you must agree that the opinions of Sean Penn, George Clooney, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon should be heard and respected as well, right? Because if your answer is "no," that would mean you want to hear only from those Hollywood figures whose opinions agree with yours--which sounds rather un-American to me.

***

Just hours after Kobe Bryant was arraigned Wednesday on charges of sexually assaulting a teenage girl, Fox broadcast a taped version of last Saturday's Teen Choice Awards, with former Laker Girl Paula Abdul presenting the trophy and Kobe's wife flashing a $4 million ring and Huggy Bear's old hat. In a calculated and cynical move, Kobe wore a T-shirt bearing Muhammad Ali's image and an oversized cross, and mangled a Birmingham jail quote from Martin Luther King. The crowd squealed its approval, giving Bryant the loudest and longest ovation of the night. Because, you know, he's a martyr.

So even as Fox News was rehashing the arraignment on Wednesday evening, the Fox Network was broadcasting a Kobe moment that made it seem like the whole Colorado nightmare never happened. Put a picture-in-picture moment like that in a screenplay and you'll be rewritten out of Hollywood.

Card those Olsen sisters!

Another strange note regarding the Teen Choice Awards: USA Today noted that actress Tara Reid is trying to tone down her party image, but "the evening's host, David Spade, didn't help matters by warning Reid during the show to steer clear of the mock cocktail bar erected on the stage."

I don't really care about Tara Reid's attempts to sweeten her image--I just hope she consents to do "Body Shots II" some day--but does anybody else find it odd that there'd be a "mock cocktail bar on the stage" at something called the Teen Choice Awards? Hello!

***

Memo to the editorial cartoonists of the world: I love the creativity you show in your work, but the next time a celebrity dies and you're thinking about doing a drawing of God or St. Peter greeting the celeb at the gates of heaven, hmmm, maybe not. It's been done about a million times by now. (Not to mention the fact that some of these famous folks hardly led ticket-to-heaven lives.)

Thanks for your consideration.

***

I'm trying to decide which car commercial is more annoying--the one that uses Journey's "Anyway You Want It" or the one that goes with Bachman Turner Overdrive's "Let It Ride," two songs that are the monster-rock equivalent of Freddy Krueger's fingernails scraping a giant chalkboard.

Ah, let's just call it a tie. In hell.

Hold on, I'm flushing.

My columns about people who wield their cell phones as tools of obnoxious behavior continue to yield observations from readers, including some who have noticed an increasing number of restroom patrons who gab on their phones even as they do their business.

I've seen that too. Walk into the men's room in any casino in Las Vegas and you're almost certain to encounter a guy who looks like a bit player on "The Sopranos," standing at the urinal with the cell phone cupped on his shoulder as he says, "Yeah, Vinnie, it's Jimmy, I'm at the place now. So are we going to meet those broads at the bar or go straight to the strip club? What? Hold on a second, I gotta flush...."

Just something to keep in mind the next time someone says, "Your battery is dead? That's OK, you can use my phone."

***

News item: With a $50,000 bid in a charity auction, NBC sports honcho Dick Ebersol gets to learn who Carly Simon was singing about in her 1972 hit, "You're So Vain"--but he has to sign a confidentiality agreement promising to keep the secret forever. Over the years, the candidates mentioned most often have been Warren Beatty, Mick Jagger and Simon's ex-husband James Taylor--but this column has learned exclusively that Simon was actually writing about the late Fred Gwynne, best known as Herman on "The Munsters." Who knew?

Kidding. Actually, it was Archie Andrews, lead singer of the Archies, best known for "Sugar, Sugar." It's going to kill Ebersol that he can't reveal this to anyone!

mailto:rroeper@suntimes.com


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: California; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: chwarzenegger; schwartzenegger; schwarzenegger
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"If you think this actor's views should be taken seriously, then you must agree that the opinions of Sean Penn, George Clooney, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon should be heard and respected as well, right?"

I can't quite figure what mental acrobatics the boy went through to come up with this conclusion; if Roeper has any brains left, he must have a massive headache.
1 posted on 08/07/2003 6:11:53 PM PDT by Chi-townChief
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To: AbsoluteJustice; Barnacle; BillyBoy; cfrels; cherry_bomb88; chicagolady; Cletus.D.Yokel; ...
CHICAGOLAND PING
2 posted on 08/07/2003 6:12:41 PM PDT by Chi-townChief
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To: Chi-townChief
Sean Penn, George Clooney, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon aren't running for office, MORON.
3 posted on 08/07/2003 6:13:45 PM PDT by SunStar (Democrats piss me off!)
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To: SunStar
Who needs those kind of actors when we have Arnold promising to take care of everybody with my money.
4 posted on 08/07/2003 6:17:16 PM PDT by Goreknowshowtocheat
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To: SunStar
Oh I forgot, he is going to lure businesses here first and then take care of everybody.
5 posted on 08/07/2003 6:18:26 PM PDT by Goreknowshowtocheat
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To: Chi-townChief
Arnold's pronouncements of cradle to grave government care and "we got to bring business back to support government programs" at his press conference yesterday sure startled this listener.

This afternoon's conservative, AM, talk radio in the San Joaquin Valley was certainly outraged by his liberal pronouncements.

6 posted on 08/07/2003 6:21:11 PM PDT by Amerigomag
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To: Chi-townChief
Because if your answer is "no," that would mean you want to hear only from those Hollywood figures whose opinions agree with yours--which sounds rather un-American to me.

Liberals NEVER do that, do they?

7 posted on 08/07/2003 6:22:54 PM PDT by Paul Atreides
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To: Amerigomag
Oh I forgot, he finally got Ted Kennedy to denounce him (Arnold) publicly so that I would vote for him. How sweet it is. What, me worry?
8 posted on 08/07/2003 6:23:37 PM PDT by Goreknowshowtocheat
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To: Chi-townChief
I think, the bigger circus this becomes the better. I'd like to see Arnie, Janeane, and Madonna all running to take over California. The more the merrier. Hopefully after this is all over we can stop hearing about how "progressive" California is and how the rest of the country is "backward".
9 posted on 08/07/2003 6:25:54 PM PDT by Arkinsaw
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To: Amerigomag
McClintock is the man!
10 posted on 08/07/2003 6:38:14 PM PDT by Princeliberty
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To: Princeliberty
"Gun controls should be stiffer." --Arnold Schwarzenegger
Principles before politics

Tom McClintock for Governor of California!

Freedom and Firearms -- A Speech by Senator Tom McClintock
Western Conservative Conference, Los Angeles, June 9, 2001

Molon Labe!

11 posted on 08/07/2003 6:41:17 PM PDT by TERMINATTOR (Don't tread on me!)
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To: TERMINATTOR
Tom is exactly what CA needs, but you will get Arnold.
12 posted on 08/07/2003 6:42:25 PM PDT by Goreknowshowtocheat
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To: SunStar
Still plenty of time for them to file, and they're about as well qualified as Ahhhnold.
13 posted on 08/07/2003 6:43:26 PM PDT by TERMINATTOR (Don't tread on me!)
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To: All

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14 posted on 08/07/2003 6:43:43 PM PDT by Bob J (Freerepublic.net...where it's always a happening....)
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To: Chi-townChief
If you think this actor's views should be taken seriously, then you must agree that the opinions of Sean Penn, George Clooney, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon should be heard and respected as well, right? Because if your answer is "no," that would mean you want to hear only from those Hollywood figures whose opinions agree with yours--which sounds rather un-American to me.

No, I'm willing to listen to anyone who can discuss the issues with clarity and logic, regardless of their vocation. Of course, anyone who can reason that way will probably become a conservative.

15 posted on 08/07/2003 6:44:54 PM PDT by Still Thinking
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To: Chi-townChief
, then you must agree that the opinions of Sean Penn, George Clooney, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon should be heard and respected as well, right?

Unlike the above mentioned, Arnold actually went to college, received a master's and ran successful businesses before he became a movie star. Idiots.

16 posted on 08/07/2003 6:47:16 PM PDT by Hildy
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To: Amerigomag
In line at the post office (in San Francisco) yesterday I overheard some lady on her cell phone. She was visiblyupset that the right wing Schwarzeneggar had announced his candidacy. I told her that Arnold was considered a RINO (she wasn't familiar with that term) and was quite moderate. It went over her head. Totally clueless.
17 posted on 08/07/2003 6:49:34 PM PDT by GSWarrior
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To: Arkinsaw
Hopefully after this is all over we can stop hearing about how "progressive" California is and how the rest of the country is "backward".

California is the mega economic powerhouse that helps make this country great. Even in a bad economy, California is the 5th largest economy on the globe.

Funny how some of you in places like Arkansas, sit on the sidelines and gawk at the political earthquake coming out of California, calling this a circus, while we are fixing to remove from office the biggest, most powerful, leftist socialist machine in the country.

The people of California making political history, while some, in places like Arkansas, like you, just can't stand it.

Missouri state motto, "At least we aren't Arkansas".

18 posted on 08/07/2003 6:56:15 PM PDT by Joe Hadenuf (RECALL DAVIS, position his smoking chair over a trapdoor, a memo for the next governor.)
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To: GSWarrior
I told her that Arnold was considered a RINO

Compared to Gray Davis, Schwarzeneggger is a member of the vast right wing conspiracy.

Dumping the nations largest, extreme left wing administration into the street, is a great thing. We are literally yanking this SOB out of the state capital. We are terminating him. We are making political history.

19 posted on 08/07/2003 7:02:35 PM PDT by Joe Hadenuf (RECALL DAVIS, position his smoking chair over a trapdoor, a memo for the next governor.)
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To: Chi-townChief
Schwarzenegger holds a masters degree in economics for one thing. I doubt that Penn, Clooney, Robbins or Saranwrap hold a masters level anything except for being liberal fools.

Secondly, Schwarzenegger has thrown in his hat to run for office. He's putting his money where his mouth is, both figuratively and literally. Which is a helluva lot different than those mentioned who can only whine and bellyache in loud and obnoxious ways.

There is little comparison to be found in Roepers example. Except they are all actors. Big whoop.

Prairie
20 posted on 08/07/2003 7:21:48 PM PDT by prairiebreeze (Middle East terrorists to the world: " We don't want no STINKING PEACE!!")
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