Schwarzenegger's campaign slowed down by accusations

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Schwarzenegger's campaign slowed down by accusations

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Republican front-runner Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign drive to take over the office of governor in California was slowed down Friday amid new accusations that he admired former Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

A new wave of criticism poured down on the Hollywood-turned politician and a former body builder, who was already under attack by women organizations for sexual harassment of six women in the past decades during movie making and other occasions.

The new accusations, launched in reports on The New York Times and ABC TV, said the remarks were contained in transcripts from a book proposal by director George Butler of the body-builder documentary "Pumping Iron".

Butler reportedly said that Schwarzenegger told an interviewer during the filming of "Pumping Iron" that he admired Hitler's rise to power despite being "a little man with almost no formal education," and wished he could have experienced the thrill Hitler must have had in speaking to huge audiences who agreed with everything he said.

Although his father was an active Nazi, Schwarzenegger has always distanced himself from that unsavory part of his Austrian background, and has donated a large sum to a Jewish organization in Los Angeles.

The latest reports stirred up strong reaction from politicians, religious organizations as well as women groups, which denounced Schwarzenegger for his behavior and urged voters not to vote for the Hollywood actor.

"To express admiration for a person directly responsible for the death of tens of millions of people during World War II is beyond comprehension," said Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., the only Holocaust survivor in Congress. "I think it probably ends any political ambition he may have had."

The Schwarzenegger campaign released a statement from Butler on Friday saying the transcripts were part of a private document he never intended for a wide audience. "As I have made clear to The New York Times and ABC, statements by Schwarzenegger (taken from the "Pumping Iron" outtakes) were not in context and not even strictly accurate as it turns out from a closer reading of a copy of what (I believe) to be a transcript of the original, now found after many years," Butler said.

Schwarzenegger denied he had made such comments on Hitler. "I don't remember any of those comments because I always despise everything that Hitler stood for," Schwarzenegger said late Thursday in a TV interview, calling the Nazi leader a "disgusting villain."

Earlier Thursday, Schwarzenegger acknowledged and apologized for having "behaved badly sometimes" around women, but said he could not imagine saying anything positive about Hitler, whom he said he despised.

But women activists were unconvinced by Schwarzenegger's apology, saying it came too late and sounded insincere.

Representatives of the Feminist Majority, National Organization for Women, CodePink and other women's groups held a news conference in Los Angeles Friday to announce that they were organizing demonstrations around the state.

"Arnold Schwarzenegger has an appalling record of disrespect and abuse of women," said Joan Blades, co-founder of MoveOn.org, an Internet-based political action group that paid for the new television ad unveiled at the women's coalition news conference. "It would be a disgrace to women and a disgrace to all the people of California if he became governor."

In West Los Angeles, leaders of Jewish, black and Muslim community groups also held a news conference Friday to denounce Schwarzenegger's remarks on Hitler.

Holocaust survivor Jona Goldrich, 76, said if Schwarzenegger made the remarks, an apology would not be enough. "There is no room for apology, to praise someone who killed 6.5 million Jews," he told the news conference.

Governor Gray Davis, struggling to keep his job, also denounced Schwarzenegger's Hitler comments. "For my part, if the comments and the conduct were true, if they actually happened, I find it very disturbing and totally unacceptable," he said.

"His professed admiration for Adolf Hitler is beyond the pale. I don't see how anyone could express admiration for someone who killed 10 million people and is one of the most reviled figures inworld history," Davis said.

During speeches made at two rallies held in Los Angeles, Schwarzenegger apologized again for what he called "offensive behavior" toward women, but he dismissed the allegations on Hitleras dirty politics.

"You know they're going to try to tear you down, try to tear down your character, try to tear down everything you stand for. I was warned about that, and here it is. They were right," he said.

Schwarzenegger's wife Maria Shriver, a TV journalist from the famous Kennedy family, also issued a spirited defense Friday, praising his courage for admitting his past wrongdoings. "I don't believe in gutter politics and I don't believe in gutter journalism. He's apologized and that's courageous," she said.

The accusations on Schwarzenegger surfaced just days before the historic recall vote due on Oct. 7, leading many to conclude that this was a smear campaign launched by the Democrats who are desperate to prevent a Republican takeover.

Latest polls showed Schwarzenegger leading among 135 candidates to replace Davis if the latter is ousted in the Oct. 7 vote.

It will take time to see how the accusations will affect the minds of voters. But University of Southern California politics expert Professor Elizabeth Garrett said she believed that the piling on of damaging allegations was slowing Schwarzenegger's campaign momentum, at least for now.

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