Standing by your man: Maria (good); Hillary (bad)?

I watching Maria Schriver on TV standing by her man, Arnold, defending him against the womanizing charges against him.

I wonder how the Republicans who criticized Hillary Clinton for standing by her man will explain their hypocracy in Maria's case.

Interesting dilemma for the Republicans.

BumbleBeeBoogie
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Oct 3, 2003
Crowd Cheers Schwarzenegger Day After Damage Control Over Reports of Hitler Comment, Groping Women
By Erica Werner
Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A crowd of more than 1,000 supporters cheered for Arnold Schwarzenegger at a campaign stop Friday, a day after the actor publicly apologized for "bad behavior" toward women and said he couldn't imagine ever telling an interviewer that he admired Adolf Hitler.
New reports that the former bodybuilder had groped women and once said he admired the Nazi leader surfaced Thursday as he began a four-day campaign bus tour. Schwarzenegger's popularity had surged in the polls, and his entourage was met by cheering crowds, but the focus had shifted to his past.

Stories by ABC News and The New York Times said the actor told an interviewer during the filming of the bodybuilding documentary "Pumping Iron" in 1975 that he admired Hitler's rise to power from humble beginnings.

Schwarzenegger, with wife Maria Shriver at his side, told a late-night news conference Thursday that he didn't recall making the remarks.

"I don't remember any of those comments because I always despise everything that Hitler stood for," Schwarzenegger said, calling the Nazi leader a "disgusting villain."

Hours before the reported comments about Hitler surfaced Thursday, Schwarzenegger addressed allegations in the Los Angeles Times, which reported the claims of six women who accused him of sexually harassing and groping them between 1975 and 2000.

"Yes, it is true that I was on rowdy movie sets and I have done things that were not right, which I thought then was playful but now I recognize that I offended people," Schwarzenegger said. "Those people that I have offended, I want to say to them I am deeply sorry."

The San Diego Union-Tribune, which endorsed Schwarzenegger last week, said in an editorial Friday that the allegations raise serious questions and urged him to more fully address the complaints.

At his first campaign stop Friday, in Arcadia, the Republican actor made no reference to either controversy.

He instead delivered his stump speech promises of restoring glory to California before an enthusiastic crowd of more than 1,000. Some supporters held signs reading: "Gray Davis groped me ... While reaching for my wallet."

A poll conducted early this week, before the reports surfaced, found 57 percent of voters ready to oust Davis in the Oct. 7 recall election. Schwarzenegger was the front-runner to replace Davis, with 36 percent support, followed by Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, with 26 percent. The poll had a margin of sampling error of 4.8 percentage points.

The Hilter comments were reported by ABC and The New York Times, which obtained copies of an unpublished book proposal with quotes from a transcript of the 1975 interview. In the interview, Schwarzenegger allegedly said, "I admired Hitler, for instance, because he came from being a little man with almost no formal education, up to power."

He also allegedly said he wished he could experience addressing a crowd at a huge political rally.

"The feeling like Kennedy had, you know, to speak to maybe 50,000 people at one time and having them cheer, or like Hitler in the Nuremberg stadium," he said, according to the transcript. "And have all those people scream at you and just being in total agreement with whatever you say."

The author of the book proposal, "Pumping Iron" director George Butler, told ABC the quotes needed to be seen in context to be understood. The Los Angeles Times said Friday that its reporters had interviewed Butler two months ago and he had denied Schwarzenegger made such remarks.

Butler told The New York Times he stood by a recollection of Schwarzenegger playing Nazi marches and mimicking S.S. officers, but said Schwarzenegger was an immature young man involved in the bodybuilding culture of the 1970s.

Schwarzenegger campaign spokesman Sean Walsh called the story "the worst kind of political smear, the worst."

Schwarzenegger grew up in Austria where his father was a member of the Nazi Party. He has faced charges of Nazi sympathizing before but has worked hard to refute them and has donated to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights organization.

Davis said he found Schwarzenegger's reported comments about Hitler "particularly offensive."

"I don't see how anyone can admire Adolf Hitler. Any decent American has to be offended by that phrase," Davis said in an interview broadcast on ABC's "Good Morning America" Friday.

He declined to discuss the groping allegations, saying, "The voters will determine how significant that story is."

The Los Angeles Times said none of the actor's political opponents put reporters in touch with the women and that none had come forward on their own. None had brought legal action against Schwarzenegger, the newspaper said.

During a debate Thursday among the other top replacement candidates - Schwarzenegger was absent - state Sen. Tom McClintock said he was skeptical of what he called a "last-minute character assassination." But after the debate, he said Schwarzenegger should drop out if the allegations were true.

Representatives of several women's organizations, including California NOW, said Friday they would call on the Los Angeles County district attorney's office to launch a criminal investigation into the groping allegations. They acknowledged that no formal complaints had been filed by the women cited and that the statute of limitations had passed.

Some analysts said the revelations could change voters' minds about Schwarzenegger.

"This is not just philandering or adultery - this is stuff that people get fired for pretty regularly," said Bruce Cain, a political scientist at University of California, Berkeley. "If Arnold is saying he can grope women because people on movie sets play by a different set of rules, I don't know that people will buy that."

But given the timing and other considerations, Cain said it was unclear whether the controversy would help Davis. "I have no doubt this will cost Arnold votes among women, but I don't know how men will react."
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Associated Press Writers Beth Fouhy and Alexandria Sage contributed to this story.

This story can be found at: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAFL8LKCLD.html