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So, it appears the Gropenator has the same problem President Jr has, always looking for a photo-op

So what was really going on last week when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger held a news conference flanked by roughly 20 firefighters fresh off the front lines of raging wildfires?

Was it a love-in, as the governor's media corps suggests?

Or were firefighters forced to stand next to Schwarzenegger, like props, in a staged photo-op designed to boost his sagging support?

Let's see, an actor turned Governor, Gee, I wonder who could be playing to the camera in this case?

The governor has created enemies in firehouses from Eureka to Escondido.....So how did Schwarzenegger find 20 firefighters eager to pose with him?

He didn't, says Pat McOsker, president of United Firefighters of Los Angeles.....He says the men and women flanking the governor were acting under duress.

Some of the firefighters, he says, approached him at the command center. "They say, 'Hey, we've been told we're going to be a part of this press conference with the governor. Can they do that? Can they make us stand with him? We're not happy about it.' "

McOsker told them to go ask their chiefs if they were required to follow such an order......Schwarzenegger has vetoed legislation to implement the fire protections recommended by a panel he himself appointed after the deadly fires of 2003. And yet there he was, trying to pass himself off as Smokey Bear.

And when asked about it, did the Gropenator deny the charge in ANY way? Well, you decide

Rather than dispute the contention, Schwarzenegger said everybody is ordered to do things at one point or another. Someone was ordered to put up the podium, he said. Someone was ordered to bring in the microphone......"I don't think we should bring politics into this," said the governor.

I'm all for not bringing politics into political issues as well, especially by someone who seems to think that firefighters are no more than paid flunkies & drones, only allowed to operate with the Gropenater's blessings, or not at all

Oh, and about NOT bringing politics into a political situation, let Gov Musclehead have the last say about how on the level the photo-op was

Steve Francis, another Ventura County fire captain, said he was told his crew's participation in the news conference was voluntary, and everyone declined......"Then at some point in the process, one of our chiefs came up and said, 'I'm ordering you guys to stand there in the backdrop,' and that was it. There was no other conversation."......"I'm a big friend of the firefighters," Schwarzenegger said once his "buddies" had gathered round. "As a matter of fact, in one of my movies, I played a firefighter."

Well, I'm sure the fact that he's not really a firefighter, but played one in a movie sure resonates with real firefighters, even if, unlike the Gropenator himself, the REAL firefighters didn't pull down a $20 Million paycheck for a job well done cinematically