The donkey's pulled an eleventh hour surprise on Arnold:

Six women who came into contact with Arnold Schwarzenegger on movie sets, in studio offices and in other settings over the last three decades say he touched them in a sexual manner without their consent.

In interviews with The Times, three of the women described their surprise and discomfort when Schwarzenegger grabbed their breasts. A fourth said he reached under her skirt and gripped her buttocks.

A fifth woman said Schwarzenegger groped her and tried to remove her bathing suit in a hotel elevator. A sixth said Schwarzenegger pulled her onto his lap and asked whether a certain sexual act had ever been performed on her.

Not one of these women filed any type of suit against him. Arnold did a very un-Clinton type thing...he apologized.

"Yes, I have behaved badly some times, yes it is true that I was on rowdy movie sets ... and I have done things I thought were playful that now I recognize that I have offended people," Schwarzenegger told a rally in San Diego to kick off a four-day bus tour of the state.

"I want to say to them that I am deeply sorry about that, and I apologize because that is not what I was trying to do. When I am governor I will prove to women that I will be a champion for women. I hope you will give me the chance to prove this."

Schwarzenegger, who is leading opinion polls as the man to replace Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, was reacting to a front-page Los Angeles Times story on Thursday in which six women gave detailed accounts of being groped or harassed by the actor over the last three decades. His press aides had earlier called the story politically motivated and insisted he did not engage in improper behavior.