By Timothy Noah

SLATE.COM

Aug. 7 — Here’s a question Jay Leno forgot to ask Arnold Schwarzenegger when he announced his candidacy for governor of California on last night’s “Tonight Show”: “Will you renounce your support for Kurt Waldheim?”

A LITTLE REFRESHER course may be in order. Kurt Waldheim, a widely esteemed former secretary general of the United Nations, was running for president of Austria in March 1986 when it came to light that he had participated in Nazi atrocities during World War II. Waldheim had always maintained that he had served in the Wehrmacht only briefly and that after being wounded early in the war, he had returned to Vienna to attend law school.

In fact, Waldheim had resumed military service after recuperating from his injury and had been an intelligence officer in Germany’s Army Group E when it committed mass murder in the Kozara region of western Bosnia. (Waldheim’s name appears on the Wehrmacht’s “honor list” of those responsible for the atrocity.) In 1944, Waldheim had reviewed and approved a packet of anti-Semitic propaganda leaflets to be dropped behind Russian lines, one of which ended, “enough of the Jewish war, kill the Jews, come over.”

After the war, Waldheim was wanted for war crimes by the War Crimes Commission of the United Nations, the very organization he would later head. None of these revelations prevented Waldheim from winning the Austrian election, but after he became president, the U.S. Justice Department put Waldheim on its watch list denying entry to “any foreign national who assisted or otherwise participated in activities amounting to persecution during World War II.” The international community largely shunned Waldheim, and he didn’t run for re-election. (This information comes from the 1992 book Betrayal: The Untold Story of the Kurt Waldheim Investigation and Cover-Up, by Eli M. Rosenbaum and William Hoffer.)

WEDDING INVITE



Kurt Waldheim in a July 1986 file photo

One month after these revelations began to splash across the front pages of newspapers worldwide, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver exchanged wedding vows at the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport. Schwarzenegger, a native of Austria, had invited Waldheim to the wedding, which of course can’t be held against him because the invitations surely went out well before the war crimes story broke. (Schwarzenegger, who held dual citizenship in Austria and the United States, had also endorsed Waldheim.)

Waldheim didn’t attend, but he sent a gift — a statue of Arnold, in lederhosen, bearing off Maria, who wore a dirndl. Admiring it, Schwarzenegger offered a tribute that stunned the assemblage into shocked silence (this is reported in Arnold: The Unauthorized Biography, by Wendy Leigh):

My friends don’t want me to mention Kurt’s name, because of all the recent Nazi stuff and the U.N. controversy, but I love him and Maria does too, and so thank you, Kurt.

Schwarzenegger’s name remained on Waldheim’s campaign posters. After Waldheim was elected, Schwarzenegger paid him a visit and was photographed with him. According to the New York Post’s “Page Six” gossip column, Schwarzenegger was seen sitting beside Waldheim as recently as 1998, when the two attended the second inauguration of Waldheim’s successor as president, Thomas Klestil.



NO-WIN SITUATION

In 1988, Schwarzenegger was asked in a Playboy interview what he thought of Waldheim. He replied:

I hate to talk about it, because it’s a no-win situation. Without going into details, I can say that being half-Austrian and half-American, I don’t like the idea that these two countries that mean so much to me are in such a disagreement. Austria is a very important place for Americans, because it is a neutral country. With a little bit of good will, the problem will be straightened out. I think it’s well on the way.

Why on Earth didn’t Schwarzenegger take this opportunity to speak out against Waldheim? It surely isn’t because Schwarzenegger himself had any Nazi sympathies (though during the filming of the documentary Pumping Iron, he reportedly once made a foolish comment praising Hitler). Rather, Schwarzenegger was likely playing politics — to be more specific, Austrian politics and family politics. For years it was rumored that if Schwarzenegger didn’t run for governor of California, he would run for president of Austria. Because Austrians have long resented what they see as Waldheim’s pointless scapegoating, any firm denunciation would have ruled the latter possibility out. In addition, Schwarzenegger’s mother had for many years lived with Alfred Gerstl, a prominent Austrian politician who rose to the top post in the upper house of Austria’s parliament. Schwarzenegger reportedly addressed him as “Uncle.” (Schwarzenegger’s father, who died three decades ago, was a police official who had belonged to the Nazi party.) Terminator for governor?

Sad, incredible sad.

Let's examine the Republican vote spread:

Schwarzenegger 3,694,436

McClintock 1,014,895

The votes are in! Republicans approve of sexual harassment by more than 3 to 1. What a hypocritical lot to have hounded President Clinton.

Clinton was adjudged guilty of PERJURY and CONTEMPT OF COURT on April 12, 1999, by Federal Judge Susan Webber Wright, who imposed punitive judgement upon Clinton, the nation's chief law enforcement officer, in the amount of $850,000, a judgement that, significantly, Clinton did not contest.

Judge Write, speaking ex officio, wrote:

"The record demonstrates by clear and convincing evidence that the president gave false and misleading testimony under oath, designed to obstruct the judicial system."

To which one of the nation's most distinguished jurists, Judge Richard Posner, Chief Judge, 7th U.S. Circuit, added:

"Clinton's numerous violations of federal law, perjury, suborning perjury and witness-tampering were felonious."

Clinton is Criminal

like Bush

like Arnold

and like all masonic craps.

``I want to thank you all for following the campaign and always showing great shots, good pictures and getting the issues out,'' Schwarzenegger told reporters.

I watched the press conference yesterday and right away, one of the first things out of this cheap labor conservative businessman's mouth,"I am going to ask President Bush for help." Well, no kidding. That's what all cheap labor conservatives do when in financial trouble, ask the government for help. Just like the airline industry, the savings and loan industry, the agricultural industry. It was Kenny Boy Lay(Little Georgie's favorite Lay) and Enron that screwed the energy consumer by manipulating the market thereby helping to throw California into the economic mess it is in now.Wow what a great cheap labor conservative he truly is. "Pleeeeeezzze federal government bail us out."

is help from the feds on things the state can't do, for example, KEEP HORDES OF ILLEGALS OUT.Or failing that, help pay for their education, etc. California pays to educate half of Mexico, and get damn little from the federal gov. THAT is what Ahnold was asking for, not money. Not that you care or anything.

Listen without the cheap illegal immigrant labor this country couldn't keep running. Are you going out there to pick the tomatos for a couple of bucks per truck? Are you going to wash the dishes in your favorite restaurant for a couple of bucks an hour? How many white guys do you see doing any of that stuff? This country has always DEPENDED on cheap immigrant labor. Look at Nike, Gap, and a host of other companies looking to the third world for CHEAP FUCKING LABOR including the Republican Party shifting there telemarketing fund raising over to India. Jeez wake the fuck up man.

Be Very Afraid

This is the text of a letter to the editors that the LA Times did not see fit to print (e-mailed to them Sat, 3 Oct.):

"Taking every advantage of this uniquely compressed recall-cum-gubernatorial race, the Schwarzenegger camp has been able to put over a 'campaign' that resembles nothing so much as the the marketing strategy a Hollywood studio would use on behalf of a megabudget action extravaganza that it knows to be a stinker. This instance of celebrity-politics-on-anabolic-steroids has even set the dangerous, anti-democratic precedent, as reported in the Los Angeles Times, and subsequently noted in a New York Times Op/Ed piece, of requiring campaign staffers to sign confidentiality agreements like those often demanded by powerful Hollywood producers and stars, especially those whose closets bulge with skeletons and dark secrets. The incompatabilty of this kind of modus operandi with that of 'doing the public's business,' to use one of Schwarzenegger's favorites among his small repertoire of cliches and platitudes, is obvious, and the implications are chilling.

One supposes that the pitch meeting for this made-in-Hollywood spectacle characterized it as 'Mr. Deeds Goes to Washington' meets the Austrian 'Horatio Alger.' To me, it seems more like 'The Triumph of the Will' meets 'The Day of the Locust.'"

Oddly enough, this was not deemed cogent, well-expressed, or relevant enough to run before Election Day. Even more surprising, I found no mention of His Musculature's often-boasted-of early business acumen. A web search on his name + bricklaying is very enlightening. (He and his partner would go door to door; the partner would climb onto the roof of an unsuspecting homeowner and damage the chimney, while our new governor would knock on the door and offer their repair services). When he told this story in a 1981 appearance on the Johnny Carson show, the host marveled at his audacity in pulling of such a "racket." The man for whom a constitutional amendment is being prepared to allow him to one day run for president, despite his not being a natural-born citizen, who presents himself as a wholehearted advocate of the all-American values of free enterprise, replied by noting proudly that some of his marks thanked them for turning up, as someone might have gotten hurt. I suppose I ought to have mentioned earlier that this business venture was undertaken right after the 1971 Sylmar earthquake. Truly an edifying example of business ethics and personal integrity. His then-partner and fellow bodybuilder is now a chiropractor, and I was interested to note that he has some kind official chiroprators' website extolling the benefits to members of his profession of the expected election of his friend. Wasn't one of the "issues" fueling the recall the scandalously expensive abuse of the workers' comp system? Well, I'm sure easier access to chiropractic visits will help bring those costs into line.... I rather like the elegant manner in which this crony capitalism mirrors at a farcical scale the corruption in the White House.

In his acceptance speech, our new governor thanked the press for "getting out his message" and the voters for "giving them his trust." Does anyone believe he could possibly have been elected if an excerpt from that Carson appearance had aired during this extraordinarily attenuated campaign season?