Withering Glance assesses political muscle

Rick Nelson and Claude Peck dispense unasked-for advice about clothing, etiquette, culture, relationships, grooming and more.

RN: So when did the body politic start demanding its elected officials possess a body beautiful? I'm guessing that while the Founding Fathers were fluent in freedom and liberty, they were less familiar with words like ripped.

CP: Maybe it was those trendsetting Californians, who elected the world's best-known bodybuilder as governor in 2003. But the Terminator showed he was a real Conan when he couldn't keep his physique off the household help.

RN: This brand of political muscle translates from the statehouse all the way up to the Oval Office. Remember that post-election picture of President-Elect Obama, on the beach in Hawaii, showing off the First Pecs?

CP: Never in my lifetime has a president been better able to wear a wind pant and a ball cap.

RN: Then there's R.T. Rybak. In 2006, Men's Fitness magazine rightly named the Loppet-racing politico the nation's fittest mayor, and from the looks of it, Hizzoner hasn't succumbed to an all-doughnut diet.

CP: And it's not just the Democrats. My home state, the Land of Lincoln, boasts a GOP congressman who graced the May cover of Men's Health magazine, shirt unbuttoned like Clark Kent.

CP: Rep. Aaron Schock redefines the phrase "campaign war chest."

RN: No kidding. That eight-pack of his is a real vote-getter, too, although the 30-year-old lawmaker is clearly ramping up the fitness expectations. Thanks to him, a candidate with a plain old six-pack can't get elected dogcatcher.

CP: Plus, he's single.

RN: It's not just the men, either. From her excellent posture, I'm guessing that Michele Bachmann logs some serious time on a Pilates reformer.

CP: She showed she can do squats, too, in that incident that found her crouching behind some bushes at the State Capitol to get a good look at a gay-rights rally. But all strength and no flexibility is a fitness dead-end.

CP: But the most pressing news in politics and bodies is New York Rep. Anthony Weiner. He is devoted to his workouts at the House members' gym, but seems to have been unable to walk by a mirror without snapping a crude self-portrait with his Blackberry. A gym rat, I guess.

RN: Or, as Holly Golightly would say, a Super Rat.

E-mail: witheringglance@startribune.com.

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