All things Ah-nold

I really don't know what's funnier: the Republicans complaining about Democrats using a candidate's sexual past against him, or Democrats actually using a candidate's sexual past against him. So far, Arnie's been accused of nothing Clinton wasn't accused of, back when the Demmie's could barely manage to catch their breath in between loud declarations that a person's private life had nothing to do with their ability to govern. Sounds like a fresh plate of hypocrisy all around (although it's interesting that no one wanted to let loose the interesting allegations of Gray Davis' temper tantrums before now. I dislike this guy more with everything new I hear about him).


Okay, so let's say Arnold's been a bad boy, and let's watch everyone aside from NOW and Tom McClintock's supporters not care. This is California. This is Hollywood. Of the things Californians worry about, restoring sexual morality to the public sphere ranks right below sending the Dodgers back to Brooklyn, with apologies. And since, per Clinton, a famous man behaving boorishly to un-famous women counts as mere sexual morality, not a criminal act, this isn't anything that Arnold needs to worry about.


In a civilized society, behavior such as what Schwarzenegger is accused of would bar a man from showing his face in public, let alone appealing to the public for public trust. But to act as though the private man and the public man were the same man is now considered frightfully un-nuanced, even medieval. Arnold is the Republican front-runner in this race because he's got a past; that means he'll never make anyone in California feel bad about their lifestyle. As long as Davis is out, debt goes down, and businesses return, Arnold can do as he pleases when the cameras go off. The people have spoken.


Incidentally, I will be taking this opportunity to admit that I was wrong. McClintock did not cost the Republicans this election. In fact, were Arnold out, McClintock might very well beat Bustamante. And were I a California resident, he'd have my vote. He's got all of Davis' "experience" and none of his slavish devotion to state bureaucracies. But alas, there are those around him who are sincerely religious, and conservatively so, and that will cost him far more votes than all the breast-fondling in the world.