Schwarzenegger shows he's not up to the task.

RECALL, anyone?

At the risk of sounding overly simplistic, the governor of the nation's most populous state--the one with a $1.4 trillion economy and public policy conundrums that would bedevil entire nations--should probably know that it's not a great idea to moonlight. It's an even worse idea when the company you're moonlighting for happens to depend on an industry that you, as governor, can help or hurt with the stroke of a pen. And it's worse still when your flaks initially pooh-pooh the revelations as irrelevant, only to follow up the next day with news that the governor has decided to quit his moonlighting job after all.

What Arnold Schwarzenegger has managed to do in that $5 million-plus contract with American Media, publisher of his beloved fitness magazines, is confirm all our worst fears about electing someone really not up to the job. Did he actually believe it was acceptable to take money from magazines that get their ad revenue from the makers of dietary supplements--and then veto a bill that would have adversely impacted the supplement industry? Maybe he just figured it was none of our business.

Last week, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the governor, through his campaign committees, has been collecting $166,859 in rent from the political action committees that he controls. Apparently, Schwarzenegger gets away with it because the property is not in his name, but an entity he happens to control. Campaign finance expert Robert Stern told the newspaper that the rental arrangement takes "advantage of a ridiculous loophole."

Don't expect the governor to come clean about this or any other misstep. His flaks will either offer weakly worded rationales--"We are following the law," said one on the rental deal--or if things really heat up, he will issue a statement saying he didn't do anything wrong but will never to do it again. It's pretty much what he did with the groping charges, which have quietly vanished into thin air.

The weird thing is that in some ways, he's done a decent job as governor. The state's short-term financial mess is a bit more contained these days and he's managed to improve relations with top Democratic lawmakers--so much so that they were able to cut a budget deal just a few days past deadline (lightning fast by Sacramento standards). And it's a pretty good budget, with billions of dollars going for transportation and education and no increase in the state budget deficit.

It could be argued that Schwarzenegger has merely put off the tough budget-cutting decisions for another year. True enough, but would Gray Davis have been able to nudge all sides into such a tidy deal? Not likely. Celebrity-infused charm, even when it's more calculated than sincere, gets you places in politics. Heck, it's what got him into office.

Nevertheless, there's this nagging question of who exactly runs the show. Is it his wife, Maria Shrivel or his staff, or the California Chamber of Commerce, or his collection of unofficial advisors/buddies/celebrities? It's certainly not Schwarzenegger himself. He comes off as perhaps the nation's most uninvolved elected official (quite unlike George Bush, who, for all his faults, does appear to make up his own mind and in his own way).

And when something does come up that requires his direct attention--say the American Media mini-scandal--he tends to bungle it up. It's the same with his offhanded shots at this or that person or group (which is why the handlers see to it that he's mostly just smiling for the cameras). Total it up and our governor seems, well, lacking class--a larger-than-life, mostly well-meaning but ultimately undisciplined boor. And a guy who still doesn't know what he's doing.

The perfect candidate to be executive editor of Muscle & Fitness.

Mark Lacter is editor of the Business Journal. He can be heard every Tuesday morning at 6:55 and 9:55 on KPCC-FM (89.3).