Governor mocks foes as `girly-men'
REMARKS CALLED `PAINFUL TO HEAR'
By Peter Nicholas
Los Angeles Times
ONTARIO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger mocked his opponents in the California Legislature on Saturday as ``girly men,'' and called upon voters to ``terminate'' them at the polls in November if they don't pass his $103 billion budget.
Using tough rhetoric that borrowed from his days as a bodybuilder and movie actor, the governor said lawmakers are telling ``lies'' and are ``back to their old habits'' after a post-recall burst of bipartisan collaboration.
Legislators, he said at a rally in the food court of the Ontario Mills Mall, are ``part of a bureaucracy that is out of shape, that is out of date, that is out of touch and that is definitely out of control in Sacramento.''
He also said: ``They cannot have the guts to come out there in front of you and say, `I don't want to represent you. I want to represent those special interests: the unions, the trial lawyers.' . . . I call them girly-men. They should get back to the table, and they should finish the budget.''
Democratic lawmakers, gay-rights advocates and feminist groups bristled over the governor's comments, which were greeted with sustained applause by hundreds of people who were invited to the rally through automated phone calls put out by Schwarzenegger's camp.
The governor used the ``girly-man'' reference twice in the span of a 16-minute speech aimed at pressuring the Legislature to pass his budget, now 17 days late. The remark is an apparent reference to an old ``Saturday Night Live'' skit parodying Schwarzenegger. Comedians Dana Carvey and Kevin Nealon played ``pumped up'' bodybuilders -- ``Hans and Franz'' -- with thick Austrian accents. Anyone without a muscled torso was dismissed as a ``girly-man.''
Though the four leaders in the Senate and Assembly are men, women chair some of the Legislature's most influential committees, ranging from appropriations to energy. The California Legislative Women's Caucus' Web site lists 33 members -- more than one-fourth of the Legislature.
Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, a Los Angeles Democrat, said: ``Those are the kinds of statements that ought not to come out of the mouth'' of the governor. The governor's pugnacious turn raised objections Saturday, with the ``girly-man'' reference becoming the focus.
``It's really painful to hear the governor resort to such blatant homophobia,'' said Sen. Sheila Kuehl, a Democrat from Los Angeles, who chairs the Senate's Natural Resources and Wildlife Committee.
Rob Stutzman, the governor's communications director, said: ``We're not going to respond to anyone looking to get their name in the paper.''