Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

Karl Rove and his neocon compatriots are unconcerned about fairness and logic.  The bottom line is unquenchable lust for power and Davis's growing woes afforded a brilliant opportunity.  Never mind that the process was set in motion by Republican corporate greed and permissiveness linked to an unswerving loyalty toward big oil, with George W. Bush referring to Enron's CEO Ken Lay endearingly as "Kenny boy."

Another salient fact that was overlooked in the rising anti-Davis crescendo was that the Democratic governor did not institute the unpopular car tax.  It was a law passed and signed into law under Davis's predecessor, Republican Pete Wilson, and took effect only under emergency cash fall contingencies so that certain vital state governmental programs could continue.  

Never mind the facts.  Karl Rove saw an opportunity and seized it.  The time was ripe for a recall election to defeat the unpopular Davis and Rove had just the candidate in mind, someone who already had heavy duty name value due to film star status.  

Arnold Schwarzenegger became available after it was learned that Dianne Feinstein rejected the recall election as a tool being improperly exercised and would not allow her name to be put forward as an alternative to Davis should he be recalled.

This left the field open to Schwarzenegger.  An influential adviser entered the scene, none other than Pete Wilson, whose advocacy of the unpopular Proposition 187, aimed at illegal immigrants and bitterly opposed by California's steadily rising Latino population, had caused an upheaval within the state.  

The mighty resistance of the state's Latinos at the polls resulted in Wilson's would be successor, then Attorney General Dan Lundgren, losing in a landslide to Gray Davis in 1998.

The rapidly changing landscape resulting from the Proposition 187 fallout enabled two Democratic U.S. Senators to be elected, Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, while Bill Clinton secured two decisive presidential victories in the Golden State in 1992 and 1996.  

Schwarzenegger, a strong supporter of Bush and right wing corporate Republican politics, incredibly availed himself as a reformer aided by Bush's leading political adviser, Rove, and Wilson.  The savvy former governor saw an opportunity to jump back into the state's power scheme after his previous exile.  

In a climate of general mainstream swooning and blatant favoritism toward Schwarzenegger, a few reporters swam against the tide and sought to question him about a state tragedy he sought to place strictly at the feet of Davis.  It was learned that he had attended, along with former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, a private meeting with Enron CEO Ken Lay.  

What was Arnold's response when questioned about the purpose and content of the meeting?  He pled amnesia, explaining that he attended many meetings and could not be expected to remember all of them.  Remember what happened when Al Gore in a 2000 presidential debate mentioned the name of the wrong FEMA administrator with whom he had met?  

In Gore's case a furor resulted over what appeared to be no more than a case of confusing two individuals from that agency.  Other than that Gore's facts were correct.  In Arnold's case the matter was dropped.  What should have been a key point considering Enron's role in the California economic disaster and a possible link to Schwarzenegger lapsed from discourse.  

During the first weekend of Schwarzenegger's candidacy in the recall election, he visited New York City to do a series of interviews.  In one interview with Diane Sawyer he was asked a seemingly obvious question for which he should have had a ready answer.  Sawyer asked Arnold if the California economic nosedive was linked to the national economic picture and Bush Administration policies.

Schwarzenegger responded that Sawyer had posed an "apples and oranges" type question and that he was concentrating strictly on California, where the problem existed.  What if any Democratic office seeker had provided such an obtuse non-response, one that denied any existence of an economic ripple effect?  Then again, to Arnold a ripple effect might mean a new bodybuilding exercise.

Once again, Arnold was not seriously challenged over an absurd answer that avoided the salient fact that he was seeking to reform a situation brought on by his allies.  The incident served as a wakeup call to Arnold's high command, however, as wife Maria Shriver explained that Arnold did not do well in some of his weekend interviews because he had been up late and was not sufficiently rested.

Speaking of Maria Shriver, her influential position as an NBC television commentator came in handy.  Arnold had the luxury of announcing his "reformist" candidacy on the Jay Leno Show.  In the election night triumph that ultimately followed the same Leno assumed the master of ceremonies role at Schwarzenegger headquarters.

Despite the corporate hype Arnold began the campaign behind California's Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante.  An interesting thing happened then that continued throughout the rest of the campaign.  Bustamante fell off the corporate media's radar screens.  

This factor was documented by media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting following the election as they charted the incredible disparity, in which Schwarzenegger had the media field almost virtually all by himself.  

Since Schwarzenegger was totally untested politically, save serving as George Bush the Elder's Physical Fitness Council head and being a longtime Republican campaign cheerleader, a few reporters had the audacity to suggest that he go head to head in debate with Gray Davis, the man he sought to remove from office and replace.  

At the very least he should have to debate with the list of candidates available to succeed Davis.

Arnold opted against any joint confrontation with Davis.  He finally, with great reluctance, agreed to a joint appearance with the other candidates.  Once again his subservient media benefactors coddled The Terminator.  Arnold agreed to appear, but only after the list of questions to be asked was announced in advance.

This removed spontaneity and absolved Schwarzenegger from being tested under fire.  This way his team could provide him with a script to memorize, in the manner of an actor.  Arnold got his way.  Can anyone recall any other instances in which, during an important campaign in a major state, a candidate received such a benefit?

While en route to what he hoped would be a sweat free triumph, two scandals emerged.  The Los Angeles Times, it appeared, had some reporters on its staff that believed in investigating charges brought to their attention, despite potential risks to Schwarzenegger.  

From that day onward the Times would be regarded by Arnold's media cheering section as mean-spirited and anti-Schwarzenegger for engaging in journalistic excess that would  be denounced by "fair and balanced" Fox News sources such as O'Reilly, Hannity, and Cavuto.

Women came forward, claiming Schwarzenegger had sexually abused them in various ways.  A protest was launched within Arnold's campaign and from favorable media sources that the Times had deliberately withheld the information until late in the campaign to cause the most damage to Schwarzenegger  

It was explained that since this was a brief campaign and the reports were not provided until he became a candidate for the highest political office in the state that it took time to investigate and report on the claims.  

Along with the various harassment claims was corresponding evidence of Arnold's cavalier attitude toward women in magazine interviews and in the bodybuilding documentary film Pumping Iron.  Included were articles maintaining that Schwarzenegger had cheated on numerous occasions after marrying Maria Shriver.  

Meanwhile the harsh critics of Bill Clinton who sought his removal from office for lying about his affair with Monica Lewinsky were either silent or claimed that Arnold was being set up.  Ann Coulter, despite her traumatizing nightmares over the stain on Lewinsky's dress, remained an Arnold advocate throughout.

There was also the matter of Arnold's friendship with Nazi SS man and later UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim as well as president of Austria, the bodybuilder's country of origin.  

Once more the double standard was in evidence and the bloodhounds that trailed Bill and Hillary Clinton to the bitter end over the Richard Mellon Scaife and Reverend Moon media-orchestrated Whitewater Case sat silently on the sidelines.

There was also the case of bodybuilder Robby Robinson, one of the few African Americans in the sport during the period of Schwarzenegger's activity.  Robinson, whose story was never refuted, revealed during the campaign, when it appeared that Arnold was on the verge of becoming California's next governor, that he had fondled Robinson's wife while she was training at Gold's Gym in Venice.

It was Robinson's other claim, however, that raised the most hackles.  Robinson spoke about the time that he had defeated Schwarzenegger in a Southern California bodybuilding competition.  That evening, at the awards banquet being held, Schwarzenegger descended on the scene screaming irrationally.  

Schwarzenegger, according to Robinson, launched an angry racist monologue in which the "N-word" was used freely and repeatedly.  Joe Weider, the event's sponsor, competitive bodybuilding's leading impresario and a former champion, became so incensed by Schwarzenegger's diatribe that he angrily ordered him from the room.  

As for Robinson, he behaved with dignity and declined to follow his instincts to attack Schwarzenegger physically.

The name of Bill Clinton should be injected for another reason.  Remember the media stir generated over Clinton's alleged disingenuousness by saying, in reference to marijuana use, that he "never inhaled"?  Also, what about the angry finger pointing pertaining to alleged steroid abuse by current professional baseball stars such as Barry Bonds?

What about Arnold's previous steroid abuse?  While so much criticism has been leveled in the direction of Clinton, Bonds, and others, the former bodybuilding champion has been given an essentially free ride by the mainstream media.  Once again the double standard prevails with Schwarzenegger.

When protests from certain quarters, particularly among women, became intense in the latter part of the recall campaign over reports of Schwarzenegger groping incidents, the clearly rattled candidate sought to bring all discussion to an end.  

Schwarzenegger promised that, if elected, he would recommend that a special commission be appointed without any influence or control on his part to investigate the allegations against him.

At the first post-election press conference given by Schwarzenegger the governor-elect's integrity was put to the test.  A reporter asked about the commission he promised would be selected to investigate sexual abuse charges against him.

"Old news!" Schwarzenegger tersely exclaimed.

When the reporter protested that his question did not involve old news, but a promise made during the close of the candidate's winning gubernatorial campaign, the press conference quickly ended.  How many other reporters came to the aid of the reporter seeking an answer regarding a campaign promise that had been made by Schwarzenegger?  The answer is none.

So Schwarzenegger began his new reform era by breaking a promise, failing to recognize its existence.  Once more he was not held accountable.  There was a response, however, to the charges and it was a nasty one.  A Schwarzenegger aide ran the name of one of the accusers through a computer.  When it returned the name of a woman with a criminal record the aide made the information public.  

It turned out that the woman with the criminal record was someone else bearing the same name.  Naturally there was no apology or expression of regret from Schwarzenegger or anyone else at his office.  She in turn sued.    

This brings to a close only the first part of the Schwarzenegger story.  His same predictable conduct continued while in office, as did the mainstream media coddling that also persisted.  This subject will be continued in my next article.