Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

That individual is Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Instead of investigating nagging charges such as having sex with an underage girl of 16 while he was a famous Mr. Olympia champion bodybuilder of 28, Schwarzenegger instead appears with Jay Leno on the Tonight Show for softball interviews likely to make Sean Hannity turn green with envy.

The free political network advertising was arranged by Maria Shriver, Arnold's wife, who was previously employed by NBC before becoming strategic adviser in her husband's successful rise to the governorship of the nation's most populous state.  Schwarzenegger announced his first run for governor in the successful recall effort against Gray Davis on Leno's show.

Recently Shriver decided it was time for Arnold to again appear with Leno.  During the current campaign season Arnold appeared to deflate charges by Democrats concerning his close affinity with George W. Bush.  He used self-deprecating humor to make his case, saying something to the effect that he was about as close to the currently beleaguered chief executive as he would ever get to an Oscar.

The campaign operatives of Democratic opponent Phil Angelides sought equal time to state his case about Arnold's current "progressive" stance but received the cold shoulder.  After all, Angelides's wife never worked for NBC.  

NBC could have performed a public service by asking Schwarzenegger the types of questions that would have driven him from the room sputtering, pleading another engagement.  

Of course, then again Arnold had Maria schedule interviews for him when he was running the first time.  He responded to a question by Diane Sawyer over the national economy impacting on California.  His response was that this was an "apples and oranges" type question, meaning that the ripple effect does not exist, not that he ever heard about it.  

Maria decided to cancel further interview opportunities during Arnold's New York visit, explaining that he was tired from too little sleep.  Schwarzenegger found time to do one interview, however, a usual "no-holds-barred" Fox interview with none other than "tough on Republicans" investigative reporter Sean Hannity.  

A network concerned about sexual predators could have asked many important questions of someone wishing to resume a position of governor of a state with such a vast economy that, if ranked as a nation, would stand as sixth largest in the world.  After all, look at Fox's preoccupation with Bill Clinton's sex life.

Arnold promised to put all the talk about his alleged predatory days behind him as soon as the election was over and order an independent investigation.  He quickly abandoned his promise, referring to it as "old news" while the mainstream media failed to press the point.  

Let's pretend that a Democrat rather than Arnold Schwarzenegger had been the involved figure.  Clinton was impeached and almost thrown out of office for lying about a consensual sex act with a White House intern.  

Ann Coulter howled endlessly about the stain on Monica Lewinsky's dress.  This is the same Coulter who swooned over the Schwarzenegger candidacy from day one.  

The same Fox News crowd that found Clinton's conduct revolting joined in on the mass swoon on the right, the same gang that said we do not need any political input from Hollywood types.  An exception was made for Arnold, as it had been earlier with Ronald Reagan.

Here is a man who in his bodybuilding and acting days treated women with the same level of respect one would accord to a slab of meat.  He confirmed his actions with interviews, such as one with Rolling Stone, where he described what appeared to be a gang rape in which he gleefully participated.  

Before his first electoral victory in the successful Gray Davis recall a story appeared concerning Schwarzenegger's groping, predatory sexual past in the Los Angeles Times. It prompted Coulter and the Fox brigade to shout "Smear!" and declare that the article was the work of the "biased left wing media."  

Why did the story come out so late?  The critics charged that their favorite muscle man was the victim of an eleventh hour smear.

Times representatives explained that it took time to investigate the charges from a host of women over a period of time.  They had not come forward until Arnold announced his candidacy on the Tonight Show.  As a result of taking the time to carefully investigate the story opposition from the Republican right cried foul.

As earlier reported, Arnold did not have much of a response, other than to defer the matter until after the election.  As also noted, he then passed it off as "old news."  As for Maria, longing to become California's first lady, she declared that voters had a choice.  They could either believe the women or listen to the one woman who knew him better than any of the others, namely herself.

Independent journalists and some media sources outside the lockstep pro-Schwarzenegger mainstream reported numerous instances of Arnold's in film set dalliances, some of the non-consensual variety.  

One alleged affair that was reported occurred during the filming of Total Recall with co-star Rachel Ticotin.  At the time she was married to actor David Caruso, current star of the hit television hit Miami CSI.  Was Maria truly in the dark about all of this?  Her brave front smacks of big time damage control on behalf of her politically ambitious husband.

There were numerous groping reports throughout Arnold's movie career.  Then there was the interview with the British talk show hostess who, after Arnold grabbed her, sued and received an out of court settlement timed conveniently, it would appear, just before he launched his current quest for a four-year term as California's chief executive.

Some of the most embarrassing Schwarzenegger moments came, however, over numerous racism charges.  Prominent African American bodybuilder Robbie Robinson provided accounts of the angry eruption of Schwarzenegger following a bodybuilding contest won by Robinson.  

Arnold disrupted the post-competition banquet by screaming the N-word repeatedly until the contest's chairman, bodybuilding entrepreneur Joe Weider, commanded Schwarzenegger to leave.

Schwarzenegger was not totally prejudiced, however, as Robinson also recounted an incident at Gold's Gym in Venice, where Arnold and other bodybuilding superstars then trained.  According to Robinson, Schwarzenegger groped Robinson's African American wife.  

In that instance as in the case of the Schwarzenegger verbal tirade Robinson quelled his natural urge to retaliate physically against Arnold since he had so many highly connected contacts that could damage or perhaps end Robinson's career.

Robinson was not the only African American bodybuilder of the period to link Schwarzenegger to racism.  There were reports of Schwarzenegger praising the apartheid, neo-fascist South African government that jailed Nelson Mandela.  

Arnold reportedly stated that blacks were unable to run a government on their own and needed a strong disciplinary hand such as the apartheid regime in South Africa supplied.

In his early bodybuilding days the Austrian born Schwarzenegger expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler and wondered what it would be like to be able to wield such awesome power as The Fuhrer had.  Arnold's father, a policeman, had been a member of Hitler's SS force during World War Two.  

While Arnold should not be held responsible for the actions of his father, he should have to answer for his own associations.

When Kurt Waldheim, a former Secretary General of the United Nations, was running for president of Austria in 1986, it was reported that he had been involved in Nazi atrocities during World War Two.  This did not stop Schwarzenegger from warmly endorsing Waldheim's candidacy.  

Arnold's name remained on Waldheim's campaign posters.  After Waldheim was elected Schwarzenegger, who holds dual citizenship in America and the country of his birth, paid a visit to Austria to congratulate and pose with Austria's president-elect.

Jay Leno never quizzed Schwarzenegger on the Waldheim link.  When an outrage was heard from the American Jewish community over the association, however, Arnold reached into his pockets and bestowed a generous donation on the Simon Wiesenthal Foundation as an intended peace offering.

There was also one other jackpot question that Leno was not about to ask Schwarzenegger and that only a few independent journalists have discussed.  It had everything to do with why Karl Rove tapped Arnold to run against Gray Davis for governor.

The entire recall election was an abuse of the political process.  During the days of California's progressive Republican Governor Hiram Johnson the recall and initiative were adopted by the legislature to provide the people with an opportunity to correct government deficiencies through joint action.

The purpose of the recall was to remove from office corrupt officials who had abused the political process.  The definitive example of the system being used for this purpose came in 1939 when corrupt Los Angeles Mayor Frank Shaw, controlled by the city's organized crime rings, was recalled by voters with reformist Judge Fletcher Bowron, a leader of the recall movement, replacing him.

When Enron began applying the screws to California's power users through excessive rate increases, plunging the state into economic chaos, Governor Davis decided to take action by having Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante sue the energy giant from Houston.  

The action would seek to disgorge the unconscionable $9 billion profit obtained by Enron through ripping off the system and placing it back in the coffers of the state whose taxpayers and government it had ripped off.

A necessary compliant dummy was needed and, in the same manner that George W. Bush was earlier recruited by Karl Rove to later take orders from Dick Cheney and the corporate power structure, a new hero emerged.  Rove recruited none other than the former Conan the Barbarian and Terminator to run Davis and his uppity Enron fighting posse out of town before sunset.

Davis had been recently reelected by a 6-point margin so Rove and Cheney needed a pretext for removing him from office.  It came with the unpopular car tax that had been implemented when the state hit the crisis point due to the Enron shakedown.

Hypocrisy was piled atop hypocrisy when Republican propagandists blamed the unpopular car tax on Davis and used it as a rallying cry for removal.  The hitch was that it had been passed and signed under the man who served as Arnold's leading political adviser within California, Governor Pete Wilson, the politician who never saw a special corporate interest of which he was not inordinately fond.  

The car tax had been passed by the legislature and signed by Wilson as a protective safeguard if the state faced a shortfall crisis, something that was of particular significance in view of the potential inability to raise sufficient amounts through property taxes due to the presence of Proposition 13, the well known initiative passed by voters in 1978, at a time when the state had a sizable surplus.

All the corporate interest brigade needed to do was find the right stooge to run, somebody, like George W. Bush, who knew how to take orders and had a hungry desire for ceremonial ego trips.  Schwarzenegger had hungered for such trappings at least since his early days as a bodybuilder, as the record showed.  

Just think, Schwarzenegger developed his huge physique through the plentiful use of steroids.  Look at the commotion when Clinton said he sampled marijuana but "did not inhale."  You know how it goes, there's a different media standard for Democrats.  In Arnold's case circumstances has proven that there is no standard at all.

There was one sticky point, a meeting that Arnold attended on May 17, 2001 at the Peninsula Hotel in Los Angeles.  It was presided over by Enron chief Ken Lay.  The meeting was also attended by convicted stock swindler Michael Milken and former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, who, along with Pete Wilson, has been a political adviser and ally of Schwarzenegger.

The objective was to attack Davis and Bustamante to prevent a successful suit against Enron.  Lay's strategy was to employ the old boxing maxim of "the best defense is a good offense" as the effort was ultimately launched to remove Davis from office by chaining him to the unpopular car tax that originated under Arnold's closest adviser Wilson.

What happened when the other shoe dropped and Lay along with his Enron Company fell into disfavor?  Arnold was asked early in his quest for the governorship, in which he adopted a reformer's mantle, about the meeting.

"I don't remember," Arnold replied.  "I'm busy and I can't be expected to remember every meeting I attend."

Right, this was just another meeting, one presided over by Ken Lay and including one of Arnold's chief political allies.  Certainly strategy was discussed over an impending onslaught of Gray Davis.  So Arnold pled amnesia!

Think back now.  How long and loud did the media shout when Al Gore made an understandable mistake of naming the wrong FEMA administrator on a tour concerning a natural disaster?    

So how much was made of Arnold's failure to remember the Peninsula Hotel meeting with Ken Lay?  How much was revealed about the grand strategy to topple Gray Davis and install Schwarzenegger in his place?  

How much did we read and hear about the effort to destroy Cruz Bustamante's suit to the detriment of California and the benefit of Ken Lay and Enron?

Do a Google Internet search and you will find Greg Palast's insightful October 5, 2003 article posted on AlterNet.  There are also other postings concerning the meeting and the strategy issues surrounding it.  At one point Enron's E-mails pertaining to the meeting were also available online.

What about the mainstream media?  Apparently they agreed with Ann Coulter that it was far more important to examine and reexamine every elemental nuance of the stain on Monica Lewinsky's dress.  

In this case it was democracy that was tragically stained and tarnished through media indifference toward a group of corporate bandits and a steroid-pumped opportunistic stooge with an oversized ego and an even bigger libido.