The interview surfaced on the Internet site thesmokinggun.com and promptly made its way into the media food chain just as Schwarzenegger was trying to nail down support from Republicans suspicious of his liberal social views and his marriage to a member of the Kennedy clan. “I never lived my life to be the governor of California,” Schwarzenegger sheepishly told one radio host after the story broke. “Obviously I’ve made statements that were ludicrous and crazy and outrageous and all those things, because that’s the way I always was.” The Oui controversy overshadowed Schwarzenegger’s endorsement by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, the influential group that sponsored Proposition 13, the tax-cutting measure considered sacred by California conservatives. And his comments made a nod from the social conservatives powerful in the California Republican Party all but impossible. “Can you trust this man as governor?” said the Rev. Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition. “He needs to fully repent.” Maybe next time, Arnold should just say non.
