Talk Cap on Spending; Cap Talk on Border Control

His act has been getting old. The bad reviews can be seen in polls.

The public’s assessment of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s job performance has dropped off a cliff -- from 60% approval in January to 40% last week, according to the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.

Nobody can be sure whether the tumble is a free-fall.

The bigger they are, the harder they fall, and all that.

A month ago, longtime Republican strategist Ken Khachigian -- a speechwriter for presidents and governors -- told me that Schwarzenegger should find “some fresh rhetoric” because “this obsessive mantra about ‘special interests’ isn’t working now. It’s wearing thin.”

Two weeks ago, the governor found not only some fresh rhetoric, but -- for him -- a new subject: illegal immigration. Answering questions from newspaper editors, he advocated “closing” the border, although he actually merely meant “secure.” He later apologized for tripping over his adopted language.

Then last week, Schwarzenegger invited himself onto the KFI-AM (640) “John and Ken Show” to complain about an L.A. billboard promoting Spanish-language KCRA-TV Channel 62. On the board, after the words “Los Angeles,” a line is drawn through “CA” and the state replaced, in bold red letters, with “Mexico.” “Los Angeles, Mexico.”

Schwarzenegger called the billboard “extremely divisive,” adding: “The big mistake is that it promotes illegal aliens to come in here. And it’s the last thing that we need.”

He didn’t stop there. The governor was asked what he would do to secure the border, and replied: “Well, I think the most important thing is what they’re doing with the ‘Minutemen.’ ... I think they’ve done a terrific job [cutting] down the crossing of illegal immigrants.... It’s just that our federal government is not doing their job.”

The next day, Schwarzenegger likened the armed, volunteer, border-prowling “Minutemen” -- whom President Bush has denounced as vigilantes -- to “a neighborhood patrol.”

So I asked Khachigian whether this was the kind of fresh rhetoric he had in mind.

“No,” he said. “I just wanted him to change the rhetoric. I didn’t want him to change the subject. I sure wouldn’t recommend changing it to illegal immigration.”

The subject virtually everybody agrees that Schwarzenegger should be focused on is budget-balancing. Controlling the budget -- much more than controlling the border -- is what got Schwarzenegger elected.

In fact, his political team this week intends to begin airing TV ads promoting the governor’s spending cap proposal.

Khachigian and other GOP gurus I talked to think that railing about illegal immigration right now could detract voters from where the governor urgently needs to lead them. And that’s to the signing of enough petitions to qualify his spending cap initiative for a special election in November. The petition deadline is Friday.

That aside, although the issue of illegal immigration could be a sinking governor’s lifeline, there’s less certainty about the buoyancy of swashbuckling “Minutemen.” Attaching yourself to them could be risky, given the potential for some trigger-happy, rogue cowboy to declare his own dunderhead war.

Therefore, you’d like to think that the governor would be wise enough not to align himself with a brigade of strangers as a grand strategy for reclaiming attention and popularity. And, after calling around, this was my conclusion: Praising the posse was mostly about spontaneity, even though some advisors do think it has popular appeal.

Mainly, Schwarzenegger was understandably incensed about the offensive billboard and wanted to speak out, realizing, of course, that it would earn him public kudos. And, as a legal immigrant, he particularly resented people cutting in line and entering the country illegally.

Let’s be honest, illegal immigration -- despite Democratic demagoguery -- isn’t just fodder for ambitious politicians and talk show hosts. It’s an acute problem. It presses California taxpayers, who must finance education and healthcare for illegal immigrants. (The undocumented may pay into federal Social Security, but their state and local tax contributions are minuscule.) It undercuts wages and benefits for legal residents. It strains the population.

Any California governor should be talking about it. Republicans for 10 years have been too timid, scared off by the Democrats’ demonizing of Gov. Pete Wilson.

Schwarzenegger and Republicans should be pounding on their party’s president for not protecting the border and enforcing the law that ostensibly prohibits hotels, restaurants, farms -- and other GOP money sources -- from hiring and exploiting illegal immigrants. They should consider an agriculture guest worker program.

But they ought to be leery of Wild West vigilantism.

Schwarzenegger needs to freshen his act by performing better as governor. That means ending deficit spending, even if it requires a tax hike. It means more cajoling and coercing of lawmakers.

“The Capitol is the center of government, where action ought to take place,” says Khachigian, a San Clemente lawyer. “People see the state Capitol as a symbol -- a sure bigger symbol than Wal-Mart and Costco [Schwarzenegger rally sites]. It’s Daniel going into the lion’s den, getting a lot of credit for confronting directly the people who are blocking government reform.”

Schwarzenegger needs a script rewrite, not a complete new story line about action heroes on the border.

George Skelton writes Monday and Thursday. Reach him at george.skelton@latimes.com.