harry hope

From The Independent, 8/30/03:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=438455

Group *** claims come back to haunt Schwarzenegger

By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles


The rocky campaign by Arnold Schwarzenegger for California governor
was shaken further yesterday when groups from left-wing feminists to
religious conservatives expressed dismay at a interview from 1977 in
which the young body-builder talked about "fags", smoking pot and
participating in group ***.

The interview, in the defunct men's magazine Oui, appeared on the
internet and promptly became the talk of the campaign circuit.

Mr Schwarzenegger - who had a reputation at the time for making
deliberately outrageous statements - referred to women as "chicks",
discussed their prowess in bed and described going on the prowl for
*** the night before body-building competitions.

At one contest, he said, "we had girls backstage giving head".

On another occasion, a young black woman appeared ***** at a gym and a
group of men - including Mr Schwarzenegger - took her upstairs and
jumped on her.

Right-wing radio and television hosts, who like to preach ***ual
abstinence before marriage, expressed disgust at Mr Schwarzenegger's
behaviour.

*** groups, meanwhile, strongly objected to his use of the word "fag",
saying it was ****ogous to calling black people "nigger".

One ******* advocate, Toni Broaddus, said that Mr Schwarzenegger's
description of group *** was "very troubling, because it did seem
close to ****.

It just didn't sound like the kind of thing that you want the leader
of the world's sixth-largest economy bragging about," she told the San
Francisco Chronicle.

Mr Schwarzenegger was dogged by questions on the interview when he
campaigned in Central Valley, California.

"I have no idea what you are talking about," he told reporters three
times, claiming he had "no memory of any of the articles I did 20 or
30 years ago".

But that was not the answer he gave hours earlier to a Sacramento
radio show.

He told KFBK:

"Obviously, I have made statements that were ludicrous and crazy and
outrageous and all those things, because that's the way I always was."

To assess the political damage the article will do is difficult.

Mr Schwarzenegger was known not to have been a choirboy when he
entered the race for the governorship.

But the Oui article raises new questions on his appeal to conservative
Republicans - the party's grass roots whose support he needs to win
the recall election on 7 October.

The reaction from liberals, over his language as much as in response
to his behaviour, also suggests there may be a threat to his standing
with moderate voters.
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Goodness. Is Ah-nuld what they call a representative of the party of
"Family Values"?

Harry