Will the Real Riordan Please Stand?

With only two weeks to go until the primary, it’s now as clear as could be. Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan should never have run for governor.

In a matter of weeks, he’s gone from a Republican primary shoo-in to a real question mark, and I’m not just talking about politics. I’m talking about whether he’ll get a crypt in the new cathedral.

Riordan’s name popped up on a list of major donors who might have an inside track to prime real estate in the 1,300-crypt mausoleum under Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles.

Mary McNamara of The Times reported that four crypts are directly under the altar, along with six exclusive chapels nearby. Kind of like sky boxes for the dead.

Should Riordan, a devout Catholic and pal of Los Angeles Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, get a Rolls Royce tomb at the Rog Mahal? I would have said yes before the campaign, no question about it. But now I’m not so sure.

Riordan, who once referred to abortion as murder, is running on a vow of supporting a woman’s right to choose. That might be safe politically, but it runs counter to everything the church preaches, not to mention Riordan’s own words.

Meanwhile, despite more signs of waffling, Riordan is backing the death penalty. This further calls into question his belief in the sanctity of life, and suggests that he’s out of step once more with the Catholic Church.

Just two years ago, in a gesture of humanity, Mahony issued a public plea for Gov. Gray Davis to put a stop to the death penalty. It had no apparent effect on Davis, who’s always had the personality of an executioner, but at least Mahony gave it an honest try.

I don’t mean to get into the church’s business here, but it seems to me that Riordan’s standing in an elite Catholic fraternal order, the Knights of Malta, should be subject to review on the basis of his gubernatorial campaign. I just can’t imagine that too many Knights are as far out of step as he is, and I haven’t even mentioned that Riordan is a gay-rights advocate.

Frankly, I like that Riordan is a little of this and a little of that, which in some ways makes him a strong statewide candidate in California. The question is whether he’s truly (a) a moderate, (b) a well-intentioned guy who just can’t make up his mind or (c) yet another candidate who will say whatever he thinks might work at the polls.

One political consultant told me that Riordan was always unequivocally anti-abortion, but started hanging out with Hollywood types and other self-reverential wildlife who preached a new religion.

“Dick surrendered himself to what I’ll call the Westside limousine liberals. These are very rich, trendy people who don’t worry about public safety because they live behind gates, and their kids are in private school so they don’t care about public education. But they’re really into pro-choice.”

Then Riordan met his third wife, Nancy Daly, who comes out of that same orbit. So when he should have been cycling the French countryside on croissant runs, Riordan ended up having to figure out what kind of man he was. That’s a mistake at any age, but particularly dangerous in the heat of a campaign.

“He had people around him who convinced him abortion was going to make the difference between him winning and losing, so he became obsessive about it and kept talking about it,” said the political consultant.

It was like waving a target in the face of Davis, whose bone-diggers came up with the tape in which Riordan comes off like Pat Robertson on abortion. So now Riordan is in the awkward position of explaining how, as governor, or as a man, he could support something he once referred to as murder.

“He put this on himself by making abortion the centerpiece of his campaign,” says the consultant, “when it should have been about Gray Davis.”

Actually, it should have been about housing, transit, jobs, energy and education. But Riordan is off his stroke now, with Bill Simon and Bill Jones closing in on him as they make sport of his personality changes and flip-flops.

In a clear signal that Riordan is flummoxed, he’s come out against lobbyists. Yeah, we get it. Davis has been bought off. But lobbyists are part of the scene, working both sides of every issue, and some of them can actually educate a guy who’s as short on public policy experience as Riordan.

There’s an even stronger sign that Riordan is in panic mode. He canceled a ski trip. Is that the Dick Riordan we know? Is it the Dick Riordan he knows?

There’s still time to bag it, Dick, and make a down payment on a crypt near the altar. Politics is the graveyard of good intentions, and it ain’t no shortcut to heaven.

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Steve Lopez writes Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at steve.lopez

@latimes.com