THE NEWS out of New England is vandals have defaced Robert Frost’s farmhouse in Derry, New Hampshire, spray-painting the south side of the poet’s house–a national landmark–with swastikas and the slogans “Arnold is a racist” and “Arnold is a Nazi.” That makes it official: recall has taken the road more traveled–by partisan nimrods. There are thing two things you should know about the controversies involving Arnold Schwarzenegger and his alleged groping of women and his supposed “admiration” of Adolph Hitler–well, three if you include the fact that Arnold apparently is guilty of some remarkably boorish behavior.

The past few days have brought out the worst and stupidest in California Democrats–and those who enable them. Governor Gray Davis, sounding more desperate by the day, has accused Arnold of sexual battery. “`Some of these events are clearly a crime,” he said Saturday in Oakland at a town hall meeting with women. “Electing a governor who might have committed a crime is obviously going to distract the state from the important work it has to do.”