Is GOP’s Dream Action Hero Ducking a Political Battle?

Just when it looked like we might be in for the ride of our lives in California, Arnold Schwarzenegger appears to be getting cold feet.

I feel like a jilted bride. Please, Arnold. Say it ain’t so.

Dan Schnur, the state’s preeminent Republican strategist, admits that Arnold appears to be backpedaling, based on the sudden waffling of his political guru. If the Terminator chickens out and decides not to challenge Gov. Gray Davis in the Oct. 7 recall election, the GOP may find itself all dressed up with nowhere to go.

“When rumors started circulating on Tuesday that he wasn’t running,” says Schnur, “a lot of Republicans began to panic.”

That’s because they don’t have a backup plan. At least not a plan everyone can agree on.

You’d think that after five years of abominable leadership by an unlovable bloke like Gray Davis, and after all the time and trouble it took to get a recall on the ballot, Republicans would have a prospect other than a monosyllabic actor with 10 minutes’ worth of political experience. But there’s no budding star on the GOP bench.

U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, the father of the recall? All it’ll take is one TV ad -- Issa wielding a pistol and standing next to a stolen car -- and that’ll be the end of that.

Bill “Simple” Simon? No one is turning cartwheels.

Tom McClintock? No one’s heard of him.

Dick Riordan?

“I’ll only run if Arnold doesn’t, and if Dianne Feinstein doesn’t get into the race,” the former L.A. mayor told me.

But Riordan didn’t sound jazzed about the prospect. Sure, his numbers in an L.A. Times poll were pretty good. But Riordan says he had nice numbers last time, and still suffered the humiliation of losing the primary to the bumbling Simon.

Besides, nobody north of Calabasas knows who Riordan is. And although his moderate politics are right for the job, his management style is all wrong.

As mayor, Riordan sabotaged his own agenda because of an aversion to working with council members or anyone else in government. Two weeks as the state Legislature’s zookeeper, and he’ll start disappearing on afternoon bike trips through wine country.

So what’s up with Schwarzenegger?

My guess is that in a moment of clarity, he realized he could emerge from a bloody two-month campaign looking like a Vienna sausage. He could even lose to me. (Order your bumper stickers while they last: I may be gray, but I’m no Davis.)

Why else would Arnold have gone from being almost a sure thing, as advisor George Gorton described it, to a man who suddenly realized he hadn’t gotten a hall pass from his wife? He and TV reporter Maria Shriver, of Kennedy stock and NBC bones, need to talk it over, we’re told. They’ve only had six months.

I guess I can see Shriver’s side. One day she’s counting money in the Mediterranean-esque splendor of Brentwood, with only an occasional public airing of Arnold’s dirty laundry. The next day she’s packing for Carmichael, with political hit men and media hacks scratching at the door.

Democratic strategist Darry Sragow says Schwarzenegger might actually have a political future, given his name recognition and money. Why risk it in a 10-week crapshoot?

Ronald Reagan, despite the myth, didn’t walk off a movie set one day and take up politics the next. He spent years preparing. Schwarzenegger backed one half-baked initiative for after-school programs, and when victory was in hand, he thought he was Dwight D. Eisenhower.

“Voters are very dismissive of Arnold right now,” Sragow says. “If you’re one of those who believe he’s got a political future, you’ve got to think about not putting it on the line in October of this year, and spending the next three years convincing people he can run the government.... This race is for people who have less to lose.”

Yes, but why introduce sanity and reason into it at this point?

Obviously, being governor of California is an intimidating prospect. You’re chief administrator of the world’s fifth-largest economy, you answer to the needs of 39 million people, and you ride herd over a legislative body as stable as the next banana republic.

But no experience is required. That’s the beauty of the recall.

Yes, it’s hard to believe the GOP talent pool is so shallow, it’s praying for help from a political novice. But Republicans must have seen something they liked in Arnold’s Terminator characters. If he could save the human race from robots, maybe he’s the perfect guy to sic on Gray Davis.

Come on, Arnold. Do it for Reagan. Do it for the Grand Old Party. Do it for me.

Schnur said it’s possible Arnold just wanted a little more time before hurling himself into the fire. I’m hoping his ego will get the best of him as he watches my campaign soar and Gray Davis vows to “fight like a Bengal tiger.”

That’s an endangered species, by the way.

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Steve Lopez writes Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at steve.lopez@latimes.com.