Did These Firefighters Truly Stand by the Gov.?

So what was really going on last week when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger held a news conference flanked by roughly 20 firefighters fresh off the front lines of raging wildfires?

Was it a love-in, as the governor's media corps suggests?

Or were firefighters forced to stand next to Schwarzenegger, like props, in a staged photo-op designed to boost his sagging support?

Well, I can tell you this:

It's now officially campaign season, because I've heard it both ways.

Katherine McLane of the governor's media corps was there with the boss, and she claims Schwarzenegger was warmly greeted -- cheered, even -- when he showed up to pat firefighters on the back for their brave work.

"I gotta tell you, everybody was cordial and polite, and there was no rancor. People were glad to see the governor," McLane said, asking if I had seen the Associated Press story on the event.

No, I hadn't. So she sent it to me.

Here's how it starts. "THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -- At a time when he has been at odds with firefighters and other public employee unions, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was greeted warmly by dozens of uniformed emergency workers Friday when he visited crews battling wildfires near Los Angeles."

It must be true, then. And yet, something rings false.

The governor has created enemies in firehouses from Eureka to Escondido. He has trashed unions and waved his pompoms for Proposition 75, which would require public employee union members to sign off on political uses for their monthly dues.

So how did Schwarzenegger find 20 firefighters eager to pose with him?

He didn't, says Pat McOsker, president of United Firefighters of Los Angeles, who went to the command center to check on the condition of colleagues who had been on the job for three days with little sleep. He says the men and women flanking the governor were acting under duress.

Some of the firefighters, he says, approached him at the command center. "They say, 'Hey, we've been told we're going to be a part of this press conference with the governor. Can they do that? Can they make us stand with him? We're not happy about it.' "

McOsker told them to go ask their chiefs if they were required to follow such an order.

The answer was yes.

"It was utter hypocrisy," says McOsker, whose differences with the governor go beyond Prop. 75.