THE MYTH AND REALITY OF ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER - TAKE 3: ARNOLD'S SCRIPT IS NOW MULTI-COLOR

By: Thomas McKelvey Cleaver

In the movie business, once a script is put into production, additional rewrites are identified by having the changed pages printed on different color paper. The more "multi-hue" the script, the more rewrites there have been; lots of different colors generally denote a project that's in trouble, though no one will ever admit it until the movie tanks on opening weekend.

Right now, Arnold Schwarzenegger's script for turning California Republican has at least four different colors in it - a sign of trouble, whether Der Governator admits it or not.

The California Nurses Association, which took the lead in opposing Arnold over his refusal to enforce the law about nurse staffing levels, and has been Big Boy's most tenacious opponents, has now been joined by the rest of the "special interests" who are bringing a blend of demonstrations and legislative strategy, with the result that Big Boy now has to defend his agenda on multiple fronts.

The Nurses won a big victory in court this past Monday when a judge declared Arnold didn't have the power to set aside the staffing regulations adopted in the legislation. As Richard Holober, Executive Director of the Consumer Federation of California put it, "The nurses have shown other unions and other opponents of the governor's policies that when he is wrong, you have to confront him and stick to the issue. And you can beat him."

Arnold's coast-to-coast tour through the checkbooks of the far right ended this past Wednesday night at the Century Plaza Hotel here in Los Angeles, where for $89,200 a couple, "the people of Kaleeforneeya" could obtain a private briefing on the issues from Der Governator himself. More than 1,000 demonstrators from The California Nurses Association, the teacher's unions and firefighters unions were outside on Century Boulevard, with protestors arriving in top hats and tiaras to point out who it was Arnold was meeting with on the inside.

In recent days, Schwarzenegger has been forced to mention the protestors in his speeches, while his audience has had to push past them to get in to see him.

Recent public opinion polls show a significant drop in public support for Schwarzenegger's proposed propositions when mention is made of the $70 million cost of the special election he is forcing through.

At the same time, Lance Olson, general counsel of the California Democratic Party, is representing the watchdog group TheRestofUs.org in a lawsuit to terminate the unlimited campaign contributions Arnold's been raising in contravention of state campaign financing law that decrees any campaign committee controlled by the governor is limited to a $22,300limit per donor. The committee - Citizens to Save California - claims independence, yet works closely with the governor and his staff. The chairman is long-time rightwing anti-tax activist Joel Fox.

In the meanwhile, legislative committees are holding hearings about the governor's "press releases" masquerading as TV news clips, a tactic he borrowed from the White House.

The same day, California Treasurer Phil Angelides launched his campaign for Governor, saying, "Governor Schwarzenegger and I have a different view of the world, two very different visions of what makes society strong." Angelides has already raised about $12.5 million for the effort. Unlike Arnold, who can read his lines with conviction whatever they say, Angelides actually knows what he's talking about when it comes to facing up to the fiscal problems confronting the state.

Schwarzenegger is no longer the only celebrity politician in the fight. In a speech last weekend to the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (a meeting that only cost $350 per person), Warren Beatty put it perfectly when he said of Der Governator: "Arnold: be the action hero I know you can be. If you're looking for something to terminate, terminate your dinners with the brokers of Wall Street. Terminate your dinners with the lobbyists of K Street. Terminate collecting out-of-state right-wing money. Terminate the $70 million special election you want to hold to divert the public's attention away from the budget crisis."

The sad thing is, if Arnold Schwarzenegger had half the courage his action-hero characters have displayed on-screen, he had the political capital to come in and actually change things for the better. Instead, he has displayed the lack of courage one associates with a demagogue who knows his only power is the power to fool the public. He's raised more money in a year than "money machine" Grey Davis raised in three years, and changes his policies weekly depending on which group has contributed how much to his campaign, all the time proclaiming himself an "outsider" who will never be "a politician.

Arnold's about to learn that the Three Rules of Hollywood work in politics, too: Nobody. Knows. Anything. His popularity hasn't dropped yet into free-fall, but his opponents have slowed him down considerably while he scrambles to find the script rewrite that will solve his problems. That's something you're supposed to have accomplished before you greenlight the movie. As in the movie business, we'll all know the answer on Opening Weekend.