THE SMEAR MACHINE

The Los Angeles Times, clearly concerned about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s lead in the polls, unleashes an astonishing piece of reporting invective against him. This reeks of a politically motivated smear-job. All of these women were sought out by the Times itself. None came forward at the time or subsequently. And although the behavior is, to my mind, gross and offensive, it doesn’t rise to the level of legal sexual harrassment; and no legal action has been sought. Moreover, four of the six women are anonymous. So a candidate now has to answer charges about his private life leveled for the most part by anonymous accusers, sought out by a newspaper that is campaigning against his candidacy and that waited a week before the recall to unload the details. The press just keeps getting classier, doesn’t it? (Bonus points to Mickey for predicting the Times’ anti-Arnold shoe-drop strategy. He was ahead of the curve by one day, 2 hours and 26 minutes. In the blogosphere, that’s an eternity. Mazel Tov. He’d get even more points if it weren’t so frigging predictable.)