THREATENING VIOLENCE AGAINST SCHWARZENEGGER?

California Democratic Party Spokesman Bob Mulholland this weekend warned Arnold Schwarzenegger that “real bullets” will be coming his way during his campaign to be governor!

“Schwarzenegger is going to find out, that unlike a Hollywood movie set, the bullets coming at him in this campaign are going to be real bullets and he is going to have to respond to them,” warned Mulholland in an interview with a camera crew from ABC NEWS.

Hmm. Threatening a candidate with “real bullets?” Somehow I think that if a Republican had said this about a member of the Kennedy clan (which, of course, Arnold is), it would be getting more play. . . .

Of course, Mulholland ought to be keelhauled by the Society For Preserving The Distinction Between The Real and The Metaphorical for using “real bullets” to mean “nasty words,” anyway.

Literally keelhauled or metaphorically keelhauled? I’m still trying to decide. Meanwhile let’s just say that Mulholland’s attack has “misfired.”

UPDATE: And maybe Mulholland should be “terminated.” Ralph Luker observes:

This is the sort of thing that gives Davis his reputation as the state’s greatest champion of intimidation and smear since Richard Nixon. Firing Mulholland now might improve Davis’s chance of surviving the recall campaign. It’s never too late to try to create the appearance of decency.

I rather doubt that a smear campaign against Arnold can work, and I suspect that it will simply drag down everyone associated with Davis and reconfirm voters’ suspicion that the gang in charge will do anything to preserve its own power. But California politics is not my strong suit.

UPDATE: Hey, maybe it wasn’t metaphorical after all. . . .