Arnold vs. Austria

Mark Steyn doesn't actually take on anyone in his December 29, 2005, Jerusalem Post column. Instead he joyfully reports the latest fallout from the Tookie Williams execution (which I have previously avoided discussing).

On December 21, the Guardian reported on the "Tookie Backlash" in Austria, where the death penalty is forbidden. It seems that Arnold Schwarzenegger's hometown of Graz took a dim view of Arnold's having allowed the Tookie Williams execution to proceed. So dim, in fact, that they threatened to change the name of the Arnold Schwarzenegger Stadium to the Tookie Williams Stadium, and some of the city leaders were working on getting Arnold's Austrian citizenship revoked.

Arnold not only gave them his permission to remove his name from the stadium, he went a step further. Steyn writes:

Writing to the mayor of his old town, Schwarzenegger noted that in the course of his gubernatorial term he'd have to make decisions on other death-row inmates, too - the next one comes up in January. So, wrote the governor, "in order to spare the responsible politicians of the city of Graz further concern, I withdraw from them as of this day the right to use my name in association with the Liebenauer Stadium... I expect the lettering to be removed by the end of 2005" - and, given that most European municipal workers are on vacation till the second week of January, that means the mayor may have had to sub-contract the job to any obliging Albanian Muslim refugees he could round up.

"The use of my name to advertise or promote the city of Graz in any way is no longer allowed," continued Arnold. "Graz will not have any problems in the future with my decisions as governor of California, because officially nothing connects us any more."

And just for good measure he returned the "Ring of Honor" he was given in 1999 for the "pride and recognition" he brought Graz.

The mayor of Graz obviously saw the tourist trade about to dry up before his eyes, so he asked Arnold to reconsider, but it was too late. The ring was already in the mail.

So, as CNN reported on December 26, the name on the stadium was changed under the cover of darkness. Not to the Tookie Williams Stadium, but to its original name, "Stadium Graz Liebenau."

Steyn again (emphasis added):

Schwarzenegger is no conservative, and has been a disappointing governor. But his letter is magnificent, and the pleasure it affords was only heightened by the hilarious Guardian headline to its report on the "controversy": "Schwarzenegger Faces 'Tookie' Backlash In Austria."

No, he doesn't. With one typewritten sheet, he's ended the whole damn backlash, and usefully offered a good basic template for US-EU relations that recognizes the basic differences between the two: Americans have responsibilities, Europeans have attitudes. Indeed, the EU has attitudes in inverse proportion to its ability to act on them. It's able to strut and preen on the world stage secure in the knowledge that nobody expects it to do anything about anything.