Ah-nuld will run, predicts Pat Buchanan

Pat Buchanan predicts in a a recent column that Arnold Schwarzenegger will run for governor of California if Gray Davis is recalled in September.

A little bird told him, apparently:

Sources tell this writer Schwarzenegger has agreed to run, that ex-L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan supports him, that he has begun to reach out to the right to cut a deal where it plays a lead role in balancing the state budget and is given concessions on partial-birth abortion. If Conan the Barbarian is in Sacramento by fall, his robes awash in blood from slashing the California state bureaucracy, recall where you read it first.

This may be a Faustian bargain for the California right, if what Mr. Buchanan notes in passing about Arnold as a politician proves to be correct:

....Schwarzenegger is pro-gay rights, pro-choice on abortion and pro-gun control, and called the impeachment of Bill Clinton a Republican disgrace.

Schwarzenegger is pro-gun control? Well, I'll look foward to seeing lots of Indian rubs and wedgies in place of gunfire when Terminator 3 opens this week. The Terminator: "I cahnnot fiahre this weapon. It's unregistered!"

It will be interesting to see if Mr. Schwarzenegger's "I'm not a conservative, but I play one in movies" stance plays in Peoria, as Variety used to put it.