Prepare For the Governator

As much as I hope the latest sexual harassment revelations about AH-nold derail Schwarzie's bid to be the next governor of California, I'm resigned to the fact that not only will America's most populous state have an Austrian bodybuilder for a leader, but also that all but one of the five most populous states will have Republican governors pulling for Bush in next year's presidential election (Pennsylvania, whose governor is Democrat and former Philadelphia mayor Ed Rendell, will be the exception). Of course, having a Republican governor pulling for you doesn't guarantee that you'll win the state. Ask George Bush Sr. and Bob Dole, when then-California governor Pete Wilson couldn't deliver the Golden State for either of them in 1992 or 1996.

There are some mitigating factors about Arnold. He's somewhat moderate, supporting gay rights, environmental protection, and afterschool programs for children, and he's also supported the Simon Weisenthal Center in Los Angeles, though I still don't get why Kurt Waldheim is one of his best friends. Plus, he wouldn't be the first wacko in the California governor's chair. How about Ronald Reagan? Or his successor Jerry Brown, who was so spaced out on alternative New Age philosophy he was called "Governor Moonbeam?"

In fact, I remember an episode of the Robert Guilliame sitcom "Benson" that sums up Brown perfectly. The show was about the domestic staff of a governor an an unidentified state. In one particular episode, the governor refuses to take his daughter to a Kiss concert, then goes off to a National Governors' Association convention. When he returns, he has a change of heart and decides to take his little girl to see Kiss.

"If Jerry Brown can stand that stuff," he explains, "so can I."

So would Arnold really be any worse?