ACROSS THE BOW

GOP strategist K. B. Forbers has some harsh words on Ahhnuld.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has become the poster child for the newest form of trash politics: a political system so corrupt and undemocratic that a compulsive sexual deviant was anointed the de facto nominee by California GOP bosses in a smoke-free backroom.

How much did Schwarzenegger's campaign team know about his egregious sexual behavior? Did they intentionally attempt to conceal this pattern of sexual harassment from voters? Did leaders of the California Republican Party look the other way in their desperation to win back the governorship?

In an era in which a candidate's first order of business is to hire an opposition research specialist to investigate his own past, it's hard to imagine that this was overlooked.

What Schwarzenegger's boosters in the GOP establishment fail to understand is that this is not about an old extramarital affair or someone's sex life from years past. This is worse. This is the story of a guy who rode the elevator, groping a woman on the way up, and who is now about to get off on the top floor: the governor's office.

Simply put, Schwarzenegger is unfit to be governor.

GOP leaders playing trash politics attempted to fool the voters — including many conservatives in their own party — by hiding the candidate's three-decade sickness and now by obscuring the line between his personal sex life and his nonconsensual sexual groping of women.

But he's been exposed. The victims of Schwarzenegger's harassing, if not criminal behavior, had the courage to expose his actions and possibly help save the GOP from making the wrong choice.

For the victims' sake, California voters must now unite and, next Tuesday, vote for anyone but Schwarzenegger.

Keep in mind that Forbes' previous gig was with Bill Simon's campaign. Simon, while he had ethical problems of his own, at least held the belief that breasts are private property.

Not sure what will come of this one, but McClintock has to like it.