....LMB: "Bad Widdle Boy"....

October 02, 2003

I'm getting tired of non-confession confessions.

Yesterday:

Women Say Schwarzenegger Groped, Humiliated Them

Less well-known, but two and a half years ago:

Arnold the Barbarian

This morning:

Schwarzenegger: 'I have behaved badly sometimes'

If you walk through it, between the first two articles, Schwarzenegger is accused of groping, stripping and molesting unwilling women, both in private and in public, on a number of occasions.

While the press is paraphrasing Arnold is such a way that it sounds like he has admitted to these acts and is apologizing for them, let's make sure we see what he really says. First he says that much of what's in the LA Times article is "not true." Then he says:

Wherever there is smoke, there is fire. That's true. What I want to say to you is that, yes, I have behaved badly sometimes. Yes it is true that I was on rowdy movie sets and I have done things that were not right that I thought were playful. I now recognize that I have offended people and to those people that I offended, I want to say that I am deeply sorry and I apologize.

So first, he claims that some of the allegations, who knows which ones he means, are not true. Then he says that he "behaved badly" as though he was a toddler who made a mess in the kitchen. He tries to explain away the allegations by saying that he was just kidding around, being playful. But, he realizes that some of those things were "not right". In the end, he apologizes not for doing these things, but because the things he did "offended" people.

Just warms your heart, don't it?

Oh, and he vows to be a "champion of women" if elected. Y'know how easy it is to vow something? Watch: I vow to grow wings and fly to the moon.

So what sort of things does Schwarzenegger consider "bad behavior"? I guess stuff like this:

In late 1990, Schwarzenegger was in the San Bernardino County town of Fontana, shooting "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." According to a female crew member, Schwarzenegger harassed her on several occasions.

She recalled encountering the actor in an elevator as she headed downstairs to the pool of the hotel where the cast and crew were staying. On each occasion, she said, she was wearing a terrycloth robe over a black, one-piece Speedo swimsuit.

"At least three times — if not more — he would end up in the elevator with me, groping me and trying to take my robe off," said the crew member, now 41 and still working in the movie industry.

"He would pin me against the corner in the elevator" and try to take off her robe and pull down the straps of her suit, she said.

The incidents did not last long, she said, because the elevator ride was short.

The woman said her response to Schwarzenegger's actions evolved with each incident. "The first time, you're like, "Oh, my God! I was groped by Arnold Schwarzenegger!' The second time you're like, 'This is disgusting.' The third time you're like, 'Get the ... away from me.' "

She said she told her boss, who advised her, "Just stay away from him."'

After that, the woman said, she would check the hotel hallway before entering the elevator. She said if Schwarzenegger got into the pool, she would get out.

"What could you do? He was the highest-paid actor in the world. I was a peon," she said. "The only thing you could do is stay away from him."

Yes, pinning a woman in a corner of an elevator and trying to strip her naked (and god knows what else) against her will, is "bad".

I think this incident sums it all up, and gives a titanic reason why Schwarzenegger should not be let anywhere near the governor's office. Schwarzenegger is one of the most powerful men in the entertainment industry. This means that he can do whatever he wants, and that nearly anyone around him is afraid of what he might do with that power should they oppose him. He surely has come to expect this from everyone around him, subservience. That's why he thinks it's okay to molest women; no one calls him on it. In fact, he surely has managers and cohorts who will help him explain it away as "playful" and whatever. He'll be used to giving orders and having them be obeyed, not having to work within rules and boundaries, compromising with legislators and such.

That who you want in charge of your state?