• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Arnold’s Sexual Recall

Tony

Penultimate Amazing
Tony
Joined
Mar 5, 2003
Messages
15,410
http://www.laweekly.com/ink/03/41/deadline-finke.php ..full article


Gloria Allred, California’s most high-profile defender of women’s rights, is demanding that Arnold Schwarzenegger answer the “very serious questions” raised by his lurid 1977 boasting that he participated in a gang bang at Gold’s Gym in Venice. In an interview with the L.A. Weekly, the Los Angeles lawyer and feminist who is founder and president of the Women’s Equal Rights Legal Defense and Education Fund added her outrage to what inexplicably has yet to become a real controversy over the candidate’s sexual history and attitudes.

“I am disgusted, appalled, revolted, sickened, disturbed and troubled,” Allred said of Schwarzenegger’s description of one incident in particular: when, with a startling specificity of language, the Pumping Iron star told the magazine, “Bodybuilders party a lot, and once, in Gold’s — the gym in Venice, California, where all the top guys train — there was a black girl who came out naked. Everybody jumped on her and took her upstairs, where we all got together.”
Click to expand...

Allred said, “There are a number of unanswered questions here that are very serious questions and shouldn’t be brushed off” by Schwarzenegger or the media. “It sounds as though it was a sexual assault or rape because he says everyone jumped on the woman involved and took her upstairs. It doesn’t sound consensual, though I don’t know for a certainty it wasn’t.
Click to expand...

Gimme a break, this is bordering on slander.
 
I think you mean libel.

I doubt Arnie would have a case, as Allred's not accusing him of anything, merely asking him for clarification. Her reaction seems over the top, though. She's reading far more into those 26-year-old comments than are actually there.
 
Posted by Tony

Gimme a break, this is bordering on slander.
Click to expand...

How is it slander (or libel), Tony? Allred is giving her response to Schwartzenegger's own description of the event from the Oui interview.

Its not libel or slander when you criticiize someone for something they say that they've actually done.
 
Ahh the politics of personal destruction. Yes, welcome to the world of politics Arnold. I don't have much sympathy for you. Your past is fair game. I like that this illustrates so nicely the fact that personal lives are grist for those on the left as well as those on the right.

I wonder if those chanting the mantra "politics of personal destruction" during the Clinton saga will chant it now?

To be fair the article appears to be genuine and Arnold gave the information of his own free will.

FWIW, I'm uncomfortable with personal info being a criteria for office. I didn't like it used against Clinton and I don't like it for Arnold. I don't see how to stop it though.
 
A woman enters a bodybuilding room totally naked and Allred infers a rape.
You can take a concept only so far and then it turns back on you.
She does her alleged cause much injustice.
 
I'm actually surprised the (real?) Nazi connection isn't brought up more by the media. I thought it would be jumped upon a long time ago.
 
T'ai Chi said:
I'm actually surprised the (real?) Nazi connection isn't brought up more by the media. I thought it would be jumped upon a long time ago.
Click to expand...
He has the blessing of Simon Wiesenthal on that issue, and has tried to atone for the sins of his father.
Other than his father is there another Nazi connection to Arnold (besides the Kennedys)?
 
RandFan said:
Ahh the politics of personal destruction. Yes, welcome to the world of politics Arnold. I don't have much sympathy for you. Your past is fair game. I like that this illustrates so nicely the fact that personal lives are grist for those on the left as well as those on the right.

I wonder if those chanting the mantra "politics of personal destruction" during the Clinton saga will chant it now?

To be fair the article appears to be genuine and Arnold gave the information of his own free will.

FWIW, I'm uncomfortable with personal info being a criteria for office. I didn't like it used against Clinton and I don't like it for Arnold. I don't see how to stop it though.
Click to expand...

Very true RandFan.
I actually feel better if a politician has some details in his/her past that can be deemed controversial. No one is perfect, and a few flaws here and there shouldn't matter.
But you are correct, it's all fair game on Arnold now. Unfortunately.
 
Remember this is Gloria Allred who is a notorious headline seeker. For a time she managed to weasel her way into the OJ case, and if you recall she was suing Dodi Fayed when he died for
"breech of contract" for dumping his ex for Di.
 
Posted by subgenius

A woman enters a bodybuilding room totally naked and Allred infers a rape
Click to expand...

Subgenius,

I recommend you reread Schwartzenegger's own account of the incident. He described a lot more detail than "a woman walked into the gym naked."
Posted by RandFan

FWIW, I'm uncomfortable with personal info being a criteria for office. I didn't like it used against Clinton and I don't like it for Arnold. I don't see how to stop it though
Click to expand...

Actually, I agree with you, RandFan.

However, when someone has absolutely no governing experience, no academic or intellectual credentials...absolutely nothing to recommend him as governor except his "personal qualities"....then surely, they have to become fair game.

He doesn't have anything else....
 
subgenius said:

He has the blessing of Simon Wiesenthal on that issue, and has tried to atone for the sins of his father.
Other than his father is there another Nazi connection to Arnold (besides the Kennedys)?
Click to expand...

I think the big question regarding Arnold and Nazis is Kurt Waldheim:

http://slate.msn.com/id/2086742/

Make of it what you will, but it's not his dad or the Kennedy's that's the real question in that regard.
 
I get the feeling Allred would have like the story better if it featured all women having a lesbian orgy.
 
re: Waldheim

Apparently Waldheim belonged to a military group responsible for a massacre. Is it completely clear that he was guilty of war crimes himself? I'm somewhat sympathetic to Schwartzenegger on this one (so far, anyway).

For example....suppose you were friends for many years with a kindly, elderly former soldier whom you loved and valued as a close personal friend.

One day you find out that, 50 years ago, this close friend had served with a military unit that committed atrocities on civilian populations. (You're never really sure how personally involved your friend was in the murders and he denies any wrongdoing).

Would you really publicly denounce your friend for a war crime that he may--or may not--have participated in 50 years earlier?

Or would you take his word for it, believe the best of this person you trust and feel so close to, and --at the very least-- not denounce him as a murdering Nazi to the public?
 
Clancie said:
However, when someone has absolutely no governing experience, no academic or intellectual credentials...absolutely nothing to recommend him as governor except his "personal qualities"....then surely, they have to become fair game.

He doesn't have anything else....
Click to expand...
Hi Clanci,

Thank you for the response.

I have acknowledged that it is fair game. But I don't think his lack of credentials makes personal information any more relevant than anyone else. How does an orgy (something the vast majority of men only dream of) have anything to with being a governor anymore than getting a BJ from an intern (something most men wouldn't turn down BTW)? Of course the fact that 'most' men would be willing to engage in such behavior does not make it ok. However, sex is sex regardless of who or how many. An orgy with one woman is no more relevant than an affair between two men or "non-sex" oral sex (see lewinski).

Rape or sexual harassment would be quite another thing. My problem with this story is that it is simply salacious and appeals only to prurient interests and tells us nothing about Arnold's ability to be a governor.
 
Hi RandFan,

Well, as I say, I kind of agree with you that sexual conduct--if consensual, and legal (i.e. not harrassment, rape, etc)--is irrelevant--or at least, should be irrelevant. (Oh well. Maybe its not too late for AS to run as a Dem? :p)

The thing is...what can candidates attract votes with? Their proposals (so far he has none). Their experience (he has none). And their character. Republicans often campaign on character issues, morality, etc. and I think that's where AS is headed. This just will make it a bit more difficult.

Personally, what bothered me most about the "Oui" article was his overall attitude toward women ( which doesn't seem to have changed, according to the "Premiere" article and Newsweek and Time's articles about him). That, plus so gleefully cheating his competitor out of the Mr. Universe title, really seem unappealing.

Since Schwartzenegger's "likeability" seems to be his main draw in the campaign--and I don't find his attitude toward women likeable at all--well, guess he's not getting my vote. (But, then, you knew that already, I'm sure. :) ).

Also, I don't understand how he thought he'd get away with saying, "I don't know what you're talking about" when asked about the incident by reporters on Thursday.

And, RandFan, as a reasonable Republican, what do you think of Ueberroth? It seems to me he should be getting the support that Riordan would have. I can't figure out why he doesn't seem to be getting more attention. Do you ever hear people expressing interest in him?
 
Clancie said:

Subgenius,

I recommend you reread Schwartzenegger's own account of the incident. He described a lot more detail than "a woman walked into the gym naked."
[/B]
Actually, I agree with you, RandFan.

However, when someone has absolutely no governing experience, no academic or intellectual credentials...absolutely nothing to recommend him as governor except his "personal qualities"....then surely, they have to become fair game.

He doesn't have anything else.... [/B]
Click to expand...
I know there was more to the story. This part I thought was relevent to the issue of consent. Not dispositive, relevent.
Also relevent, lack of any complaint filed.

Re: the balance of your post. Agree.
At this point its all a matter of whether the other major Republicans will lay down and let him win. I'm hoping they take a courageous stand, and stand up for principle.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom