Did America Lose the Cold War on an Arm Wrestling Bet with an OC Congressman?

Crazy Dana Rohrabacher - Photo Credit: Jack Gould / OC Weekly
Crazy Dana Rohrabacher - Photo Credit: Jack Gould / OC Weekly
Crazy Dana Rohrabacher – Photo Credit: Jack Gould / OC Weekly

Russian president Vladimir Putin is a fit and physically strong member of the Russian government.  Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa) resembles the Pillsbury Doughboy.  According to this story in TheBlaze, the Congressman once lost a bet with Putin, who was the then deputy mayor of St. Petersburg, over which nation won the Cold War.  It happened in the 90s, but just imagine the scene unfolding.

Rohrabacher told the story himself to KPCC Radio.  From the story:

Putin and two other Russian politicians were in Washington, D.C., on business and Rohrabacher reportedly invited them to play “touch football.” It wasn’t long before the group wound up at a local pub, Kelly’s Irish Times, drinking and telling stories.

“Come to find out later it was Putin. I didn’t know who he was then. He was deputy mayor of St. Petersburg. That’s all we knew. But he did have a huge bodyguard, so that did sort of give us a little hint that he’s more important than just St. Petersburg,” Rohrabacher recalled. “So we went out and played touch football. And Scooter Libby was one of the players, and a bunch of my right-wing friends were there. And so we all went over to this pub afterwards, the Irish Times pub.”

He went on: “We were having a little bit too much to drink, I guess. But anyways, we started arguing about who won the Cold War, etc. And so we decided to settle it like men do when they’ve had too much to drink in the pub. And so we got down to these arm wrestling matches. And I ended up being paired up with Putin. And he’s a little guy, but boy I tell you, he put me down in a millisecond. He is tough. … His muscles are just unbelievable.”
This isn’t the first time Rohrabacher has said or done something completely ridiculous since being elected to Congress.  There was the time he dressed in drag to question Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin Sirhan Sirhan in prison.  Dana was taken apart by smart editors at Discover Magazine for dumb statements made about climate change; the Daily Kos and a number of other publications have written about Dana’s dumb comments on global warming.  He was also barred from entering Afghanistan by President Karzi just to name a few instances.
As far as the Putin arm-wrestling match goes, I’m pretty sure a couple of the sixth grade girls from my last basketball team could beat Dana in an arm-wrestling match.  It’s a good thing the fate of the free world isn’t dependent on Dana’s upper body strength for liberty.