The sex behind the politics
The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO -- Californians learned last week that the state's two most glamorous politicians Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom have something in common: glamorous wives who wield power over their men through sex.
At a panel discussion Monday hosted by former Clinton chief of staff Leon Panetta, Schwarzenegger cracked up the audience by saying his wife, Democrat Maria Shriver, had exacted some below-the-belt revenge for his red-meat speech at the Republican National Convention.
"There was no sex for 14 days," Schwarzenegger confessed to the crowd of 1,000.
A few days earlier, addressing a gay rights gala in New York, the mayor's wife praised her husband's anatomy in graphic terms. Kimberly Guilfoyle Newsom even acted out a provocative pantomime, suggesting that her own talents in the bedroom have kept the mayor in the heterosexual camp.
The speech landed the TV commentator and former Victoria's Secret underwear model in tabloid gossip columns and had political bloggers calling her "Potty Mouth," but the mayor's spokesman wasn't making any apologies.
"We believe in transparent and open government and for full disclosure for elected officials," Peter Ragone said, in a statement best described as arch.
The sex talk may not faze Californians, who like to think of themselves as an open-minded and cutting edge bunch, but it's hard to imagine such language from other prominent politicians and their spouses. It's safe to say that first lady Laura Bush and even Sen. John Kerry's exotic and outspoken wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, have never uttered anything quite so provocative in public as Guilfoyle Newsom's salty spiel.
Still, Schwarzenegger and Newsom represent a provocative blend in California, a state with a history of sexy stars and generally boring politicians.
After bouncing starchy Democratic Gov. Gray Davis a year ago, Schwarzenegger and Shriver -- a television journalist well-known in her own right -- have brought a giant dose of Hollywood sizzle to Sacramento. And the handsome, wealthy Newsom and his legal analyst bride are quite the telegenic power couple, even posing seductively on a rug for a photo spread in Harper's Bazaar magazine.
Both couples share razor-sharp political minds and big agendas -- and both episodes may say more about ambition than sex.
Schwarzenegger has always milked a lot of laugh lines out of his marriage to Shriver -- she of the famously Democratic Kennedy family, whose smarts and strong will make her the perfect foil to her boisterous husband. In Democrat-leaning California, Shriver provides a reassuring presence; her support for her husband during the recall election (even through the notorious groping allegations) helped ease voters' concerns about electing a Republican bad-boy body builder to lead the state.
A year later, Schwarzenegger is acutely aware that he must maintain the support of Democrats and Independents to remain effective, so in the closing weeks of the high-stakes presidential contest, his crack about Shriver's Lysistrata-style sex strike provides a lot of cover -- most importantly as he campaigns for Bush, whom most Californians (including Shriver, in all likelihood) would love to send packing.
"He's making some self-deprecating girlie-man quips to show people he knows they're not comfortable with his support of Bush," said Marty Kaplan, a political analyst at the University of Southern California.
"Can you really imagine Maria Shriver not reading that convention speech? What he said was definitely damage control."
As for Newsom, City Hall insiders were said to be wondering this week whether his wife's candid comments would doom any hopes of a political career beyond libertine San Francisco. Others say Newsom, who blasted onto the national stage year by launching the city's gay marriage spree, may have other things to prove.
"In the case of the mayor, his wife was adjusting his image based on what people might infer because of his stand on gay marriage," Kaplan said. "It sounds like a pre-emptive strike on that front -- to establish or re-establish the nature of his sexuality."
And for now, with no backlash from political opponents of either men and only a minor bit of backpedaling by Guilfoyle Newsom (she told a reporter her hand gestures were not what they appeared to be) one could argue that a politician's image is improved by the occasional spicy mention of sex -- the married kind, at least.
Still, what's next? The president and first lady doing Viagra ads?