THE TEFLON TWINS CELEB POLITICOS CAN DO NO WRONG.

Byline: MARIEL GARZA

WE grow our politicians slippery in California.

Maybe it's the sunshine. Maybe it's the proximity to the Hollywood dream machine. Something gives this state the ability to create handsome, charismatic celebrity politicians who can do no wrong, even when they are.

Ronald Reagan, the ``Teflon president'' himself, was of course the pioneer of the impervious pol. The movie-star-turned-folksy-politician (now, that sounds familiar) sauntered through lakes of political muck, dirtying up his companions but never getting a spot on himself.

Reagan kept himself so clean that when he died in 2004, the country exercised mass selective memory. Commentators and regular folk alike hailed the ``Great Communicator'' as right up there with the Founding Fathers, no mention of that legacy of a pesky deficit.

Nonstick for sure.

In that great tradition, California is growing a new crop of cling-free politicians: the Teflon twins, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Antonio Villaraigosa. This pair collectively has more celebrity -- and possibility even less stickiness -- than their spiritual predecessor.

Admittedly, the fair and chiseled governor and the dark and dangerous L.A. mayor are about as twinny as Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito were in that goofy buddy movie. But they do have one striking thing in common: a reserve of charm so deep it allows them to walk out of tight situations that would doom normal folk to years of shame and therapy.

But Teflon's so last-century. This duo is covered in something more akin to Kevlar, the modern-day bullet-proof material that cops wear to work. Nothing bad pierces their polished and smiling exteriors.

Phil Angelides found that out big time the other day. Surely, the brains behind the Angelides gubernatorial campaign thought they had the Governator cold with the taped conversation in which he talked about Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia's penchant for fiery talk by saying this of Latinos: ``They are all very hot. They have the, you know, part of the black blood in them and part of the Latino blood in them that together makes it.''

Many of us actual Latinos were unsure how to feel about this comment. I'm mean, it's not like it's a terrible thing to be called ``hot.'' Just ask Paris Hilton. All the same, there was something unseemly and uncomfortable about reducing all Latinos to hot-blooded firebrands. As an Austrian immigrant who has been called a Nazi more than once, he ought to know better.

But after the flurry of jokes and some half-hearted attempts by some to draw Arnold as both racist and misogynist (offered mostly by the pro- Angelides faction), a chagrined governor offered up an immediate and seemingly sincere mea culpa.

You could almost hear the ``splat'' as the mud cake bounced off the governor's impervious image -- and hit Angelides square in the face.

It turns out the disclosure that his campaign was the source of the taped conversation leak -- through an incident of computer hackery that was at least unethical if not illegal -- may have done more lasting damage to Angelides's own campaign than to that of his rival. Polls back up Arnold's continuing popularity, predicting a landslide.

This isn't the first scrape that Arnold has emerged from unscathed. First, there were the allegations that he groped a number of women in his movie-star days, which emerged just days before the 2003 recall election. But even with women claiming to have been manhandled, Schwarzenegger was still the wildly popular winner, elected by 1.5million more votes than his closest rival.

Then there were the spats in the Legislature about everything from the budget to an independent redrawing of state political boundaries. After that came the nasty political fight over the special election, which Schwarzenegger lost spectacularly.

Last week, the Governator came to L.A. for a photo-op with his political soul brother at the Central Library to sign the legislation that would give L.A.'s mayor control over the public schools. As part of the ceremony, he was surrounded by a clutch of some of the same people who were denouncing him just a year ago -- powerful Democratic leaders, as well as teachers and parents.

After the bipartisan schmooze event at the Central Library, Schwarzenegger stopped by to schmooze up the Daily News and push his infrastructure bonds. Who else could make levy repair look sexy? Later, Schwarzenegger brushed aside the fact that the nationally popular mayor of the the state's largest -- by far -- city, endorsed fellow Democrat Angelides' campaign to replace Schwarzenegger.

``It's irrelevant to me,'' he said. ``People judge you based on what you do, no so much what you say.''

In other words, on paper Villaraigosa is an Angelides supporter. But where it counts -- in front of the TV cameras, say -- Villaraigosa appears to be solidly in the governor's camp.

The next day, a visiting Democratic consultant slapped the photograph of the mayor and the governor on the front page of the newspaper, disgusted. ``What is this?'' he said.

You can be sure the Republicans are saying the same thing about the man they once thought was their champion but is now spending a whole of lot of time on the other side of the aisle.

But who can blame him? Schwarzenegger's savvy enough to know that while Villaraigosa isn't as popular as the Terminator, he isn't far behind. Arnold might have had his picture in countless People magazine issues, but Villaraigosa's been on the cover of Newsweek.

Besides, it must be clear to him that Villaraigosa is as untouchable politically as he is. Why else would otherwise sane people hand over control of the massive Los Angeles Unified School District to a guy who has broken scores of promises, starting with the one not to run for mayor? There's no guarantee Villaraigosa will even be around to see this hare- brained experiment in school reform realized. Yet everyone seems to have been convinced by the strength of his personality, seduced by that famous Antonio smile.

If there's a difference between the the mayor and the governor, it's that Villaraigosa has yet to take full advantage of his bullet-proof veneer. Maybe it's not a natural fit since he didn't start in the world of Hollywood, where one learns that personal critique and criticism just come with the job. Villaraigosa still bridles at tough questions from the press, as if reporters are questioning his right to be mayor. He remembers every mean thing the ``people in the back of the room'' have ever written, every perceived slight or unfair assessment.

Villaraigosa must realize by now that it will take more than one harsh evaluation -- or even five! -- to derail his rising political career. Even if he goes no further than to hire a new superintendent for the school district before he moves on and up, he very well could still be remembered as the man who reformed the city's schools.

The Teflon president would be proud.

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Photo:

(color) no caption (Arnold Schwarzenegger and Antonio Villaraigosa)

Photo Illustration by T. Christian Gapen