Now the Fun Begins --Michaelangelo Signorile's column on Ah-nuld

The media’s swooning for Arnold Schwarzenegger began long before last Tuesday, with nothing even remotely resembling an expose about the stealth-like candidate until the L.A. Times’ revelations of alleged on-the-job sexual harassment, a story that ran only days before the election. Critics charged it was dirty tricks since it came so late in the campaign–a campaign that was only nine damn weeks old!–but actually, the lateness of the story benefited Arnie completely. After all, most people, including Davis and the other candidates, didn’t have weeks to yammer on about the Gropenator’s penchant for taking ownership of women’s breasts and asking them, in the middle of the work day, if they’d like having a man’s tongue up their assholes.

But now, ever since his supposed "landslide" election, media pundits–including the so-called liberal ones–seem to have dropped Gropergate entirely and have become completely and utterly starstruck.

"When the spotlight hit Schwarzenegger, he performed magnificently," gushed Richard Cohen in the Washington Post last week. The veteran columnist actually said that after watching a Biography-channel piece on the movie-star-turned-governor on election night, he "can’t help liking the guy," even though he disagrees with "some of his policies."

Schwarzenegger’s treatment of women, as described by those who came forward to the L.A. Times, is now described by Cohen, who fancies himself a liberal, as merely "boorish" behavior. That’s not a far cry from what most conservatives said, having endlessly railed against Bill Clinton’s supposed depravity for engaging in consensual oral sex, while now excusing Arnie’s workplace sexual harassment and abuse, dismissing it with a "boys will be boys" grin.

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He did a whole column on how Schwarzenegger's win was due to his genuineness and likability. Please! Schwarzenegger faced one "debate," openly put down women, and benefitted from massive free publicity and name recognition. Genuineness had nothing to do with it. Indeed, much of his appeal was manufactured. Add to that the basic artificiality of most celebrities' public images and you've got to wonder where Cohen scores on the naivete scale.

To top it off, Cohen opined that Reagan, like Schwarzenegger, was utterly genuine (i.e., what you saw was what you got). Guess Cohen forgot about the "no arms for hostages claims" bit, didn't he?

He wasn't Gray Davis.

Arnold Ziffel the Pig from Green Acres would have won too, and probably run a more intelligent campaign.

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Or will Maria have to do a bit of redecorating?

Boy, Signorile really beats Schwarzenegger's fawning fan Richard Cohen like a red-headed stepchild! :spank: