Arnie: 'No sex for 2 weeks'

2004-10-20 08:12

Los Angeles - California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said his sex life suffered after he praised President George W Bush at the Republican convention, infuriating his Democrat wife.

The movie star politician told an audience late on Monday that his wife and Kennedy family heiress Maria Shriver was not amused at his electrifying speech in support of Bush's White House bid and cold-shouldered him after the convention.

"Well, there was no sex for 14 days," the Terminator; star quipped when asked by former Democratic White House chief of staff Leon Pannetta what Shriver thought of Schwarzenegger's backing for Bush.

While she has taken on the role of first lady to California's Republican governor, Shriver is an arch-Democrat and the niece of slain United States president John F Kennedy and of his brother, senator Robert Kennedy.

Won't publicly commit himself

He surprised some observers by offering his unqualified support to Bush's re-election bid in his speech at the party's convention in New York in late August.

But Schwarzenegger said in his speech in Monterey, California that he is not likely to hit the campaign trail for Bush, but said he was considering making one appearance in the battleground state of Ohio.

The governor, who took office almost a year ago, has been cagey about publicly committing himself to campaigning for Bush with whom he has little in common apart from their party affiliation.

Fiscal conservative Schwarzenegger is a social liberal, supporting abortion rights, stem cell research, gun control and even gay marriage, issues to which Bush is heavily opposed.

Americans go to the polls in less than two weeks, on November 2, to elect a president with Bush facing Democrat John Kerry, who shares most of Schwarzenegger's stances on social issues.

A jocular Schwarzenegger said that he had no interest in watching the presidential debates between Bush and Kerry, according to the Monterey Herald newspaper.

He quipped that if he wanted to hear a great discussion between an intelligent liberal and a Republican, "I'd just take my wife out to dinner."

Constitutional changes

But the governor said he was jealous of the presidential candidates as they only had to square off three times, while "I have to do it every morning over breakfast," he said.

The Austrian-born former Mr Universe said he was pleased that moves were underway to attempt to change the US Constitution to allow foreign-born citizens to become president.

However, he said he was enjoying his job as governor and wished that people would not associate his name with the proposed constitutional change, because the timing of the debate gave the appearance of being aimed at helping him.

"I just wish they would take me out of the discussion," he said, adding that Democrats certainly did not want "that Schwarzen-schnitzel" to be president.

- AFP