Schwarzenegger and Steroids

Before I got carried away by the excellent news from Washington, I had decided to blog this silly story on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle:

Bodybuilding connection again singes governor

New winner of Arnold Classic reportedly linked to recent pharmacy steroid raids

Carla Marinucci, Edward Epstein, Chronicle Political Writers
Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger personally congratulated the massive, chiseled winner of his signature Arnold Classic bodybuilding competition in Ohio on Saturday and stood by as Victor Martinez was presented with a $130,000 first-place check, a spectacular trophy, a luxury Swiss watch and an "Arnold Classic" jacket.

Just days before, the name of the 34-year-old "Dominican Dominator" – who was caught selling steroids to a New York City undercover police officer in 2004 – appeared in published reports in New York about a major multistate investigation of steroid use related to the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative. ...

Heaven knows I'm no fan of the Governator politically. As a sometime weightlifter I am much more enamored of Bill Pearl's Getting Stronger than I am of the Governator's The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding. (I have watched and enjoyed several of his movies.)

The fact remains, though, that by its very nature, Arnold Schwarzenegger's career is inextricably linked with steroid use. He has never denied it, and has in fact advocated steroids for bodybuilding in the past, e.g., in his 1974 interview with Barbara Walters. Legitimate or not, steroid use has been a key aspect of competetive bodybuilding for decades.

So the winner of a bodybuilding competition bearing the Governator's name has been linked to steroid use. To grasp one's pearls with one hand, throw bring the back of the other hand to one's forehead, and profess shock that this is so is more than a trifle disingenuous. It's in the same league as professing shock that professional wrestling is fixed.

Should the Governator's name be followed by an asterisk in California political history because he juiced?