{"id":1706,"date":"2005-08-15T21:11:43","date_gmt":"2005-08-16T01:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.test.bradblog.com\/?p=1706"},"modified":"2005-08-15T21:11:43","modified_gmt":"2005-08-16T01:11:43","slug":"ca-schwarzenegger-could-be-impeached","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bbnewdb.webbyspice.com\/?p=1706","title":{"rendered":"CA: Schwarzenegger Could Be Impeached!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest blogged by Joseph Cannon<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

Go to Google, type in the words Schwarzenegger<\/em>, Gigi<\/em> and impeach<\/em> — and what comes up? Precious little<\/a>. Yet at this very moment, we should be seeing the stirring of a widespread impeachment movement.<\/p>\n

The California governor had a seven-year affair with Gigi Goyette<\/a>, who now lives in Malibu. The affair may have started when she was underaged.<\/p>\n

Days after Arnold Schwarzenegger jumped into the race for governor and girded for questions about his past, a tabloid publisher wooing him for a business deal promised to pay a woman $20,000 to sign a confidentiality agreement about an alleged affair with the candidate.<\/p>\n

American Media Inc., which publishes the National Enquirer, signed a friend of the woman to a similar contract about the alleged relationship for $1,000.<\/p><\/div>\n

The story was first told in LA Magazine<\/em> back in September of 2004. Alas, everyone (including this writer) ignored the matter until the L.A. Times brought it back into focus.<\/p>\n

Two months later, the Enquirer announced it had a “world exclusive.” The cover story, headlined “Arnold’s Shocking 7-Year Affair,” chronicled his dalliance with a former child actress named Gigi Goyette and was accompanied by photos of Goyette lounging in a thong bikini and posing with Schwarzenegger. Coming on the heels of the Premiere story, it was a lethal blow, certainly for a candidate who needed the support of the family-values, conservative base of the Republican Party to survive a primary.<\/p>\n

The article had blindsided Schwarzenegger, who believed he had already dealt with the detritus of his life…<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

In the past, I have discussed the mafia and government connections<\/a> of the American tabloid industry, which was begun by a mobbed-up CIA psychological warfare specialist. The National Enquirer has a history of protecting right-wing politicians while sliming the left.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, the LA Magazine<\/em> story referenced above is quite hip to tabloid history. As that story notes, AMI — which now owns all the tabs — refused to touch the philandering allegations surrounding Jeb Bush, governor of Florida, the home state for the tabloids.<\/p>\n

Florida and California have more than Disney theme parks in common. After the publication of the above-cited story, the tabloids suddenly refused to touch Schwarzenegger.<\/p>\n

The actor cut a deal with American Media, which also owns the fitness magazines with which Schwarzenegger has had a long-standing relationship. The deal was worth millions.<\/p>\n

I suspect that we will soon learn much more about the relationship between AMI and Arnold Schwarzenegger. At a time when the tabloids are hurting, AMI sat on a huge<\/em> story — and even functioned as the proxy for the (rather paltry) pay-off to the lady in question. Would they have done so without<\/em> strong financial inducement? Just what is the relationship between AMI and the Republican power elite?<\/p>\n

Any gubernatorial candidate who, either personally or via proxy, bribes a woman to keep quiet about an affair has committed an impeachable offense. So why are Democrats keeping mum about this sordid affair?<\/p>\n

The ghost of the Clinton\/Lewinski scandal may still haunt the political landscape. But that ghost is (pardon the expression) easily laid. Neither Clinton nor his associates paid Lewinski any money.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the United States constitution and the California constitution differ. A president may be impeached for treason, bribery, and “high crimes and misdemeanors.” A California governor may be impeached simply for “misconduct” in office. California’s corrupt governor was party to a bribe paid to maintain his political career. That action certainly qualifies as misconduct.<\/p>\n

The state Senate must bring impeachment charges against Schwarzenegger. The Assembly will try those charges. The Republicans, I can happily report, do not<\/em> control the California legislature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guest blogged by Joseph Cannon Go to Google, type in the words Schwarzenegger, Gigi and impeach — and what comes up? Precious little. Yet at this very moment, we should be seeing the stirring of a widespread impeachment movement. The California governor had a seven-year affair with Gigi Goyette, who now lives in Malibu. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":155,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbnewdb.webbyspice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbnewdb.webbyspice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbnewdb.webbyspice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbnewdb.webbyspice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbnewdb.webbyspice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bbnewdb.webbyspice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1706\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbnewdb.webbyspice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbnewdb.webbyspice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbnewdb.webbyspice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}