The secret's out. Green kryptonite can make Superman knuckle under, and a little brown-and- white spaniel named Casey can make Arnold Schwarzenegger say "uncle."
Executing a spin faster than Michelle Kwan, the governor of California has salvaged his political future by saying it was all a mistake, that he would never, ever balance his budget on the lives of household pets.
I exaggerate about his political future, but not much. Execute a mentally impaired killer and you can become president of the United States. Save a few bucks by gassing innocent puppies, kitties and potbellied piglets and you truly won't even get elected dogcatcher.
Schwarzenegger's own brush with political death began with The Times' front page article Friday that the governor's budget would save $14 million -- which also happens to be the price tag on the jet Schwarzenegger got for starring in "Terminator 2" -- by letting animal shelters kill lost pets after three days instead of six. Only after his phone lines were overrun, after the "pet terminator" story made news from Brisbane to Edinburgh, after shelter dogs staged a poop-in on the Capitol lawn and Casey the rescue dog wore a yellow sign pleading "Don't kill me Arnold" did the governor say it was an "oversight" and he'd never dream of yanking that money.
"That's not me. I'm an animal lover," he said. Back at chez Schwarzenegger in Brentwood, Sarge the cockapoo and Sammy and Spunky the yellow Labs could prove it.
Look fast because it doesn't happen often: This time, Schwarzenegger's instincts, or his handlers', or both, almost failed him.
Schwarzenegger at his savviest, seeing the story at breakfast, would have instantly dispatched an aide to borrow a prop dog from the Sacramento shelter and called a news conference in his jammies.
Instead, it was late Friday afternoon when Schwarzenegger finally announced that he didn't mean it. By then, even L.A. Mayor Jim Hahn, who has the TV-Q of a Q-Tip, had already sagely ordered his city to ignore the pending Schwarzenegger doggie death sentence.
Schwarzenegger's other remarkable U-turn happened last year over his plan to cut about a quarter-billion in benefits to the developmentally disabled. Then, as now, he heard from the same focus group: his family. Then it was his mother-in-law, Eunice Shriver, doyenne of the Special Olympics.
