Vast right-wing conspiracy to rob Tim Robbins of his vote?

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This stuff never happens to Arnold Schwarzenegger. When Tim Robbins went to his local polling place today at the 14th Street YMCA in Manhattan, no one could find his name in the rolls of registered voters, even though he’d been voting at the same location for years. According to TMZ, an argument erupted after Robbins was told he’d have to fill out a provisional ballot. ‘Robbins allegedly got loud and the poll worker said he was calling the cops. Robbins accused the poll worker of trying to intimidate him so he wouldn’t vote.’

Of course, the right-wing press has been having a field day with this nugget, with the New York Post snarkily describing the actor as ‘liberal poster boy Tim Robbins’ and quoting a poll worker as saying Robbins was ‘obnoxious.’ Dirty Harry’s blog tagged the story ‘Snit Alert.’ It’s not exactly news that conservatives loathe Robbins--they’re always complaining about how his activism makes it impossible for any patriotic moviegoer to enjoy his films. But if you watch the TMZ video for yourself, you’ll see that Robbins is unbelievably gentlemanly toward the TMZ reporter, patiently explaining his voting difficulties, before urging him to go off and vote himself. Maybe my conservative blogger pals are extra cranky today, with the polls painting a bleak picture for election night, but if they want to stereotype a Hollywood actor as a dilettante, they’ll have to do better than this.