Arnold Schwarzenegger: Eat Your Spinach

So far, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his chief of staff, Susan Kennedy, have managed to keep the E. coli outbreak linked to California-grown spinach away from the governor. Politically that is.

Kennedy is a master at damage control, most notably in her ability to enforce discipline and a sense of urgency on the state's vast and often unfocused bureaucracies. She learned many lessons during the energy crisis of 2000 and 2001, which pretty much destroyed her boss at the time, then-Gov. Gray Davis, who was criticized for what was seen as a slow reaction. (Little did they know, the conspiracy in Texas was unstoppable.)

And so, what has been Schwarzenegger's response to the great spinach debacle? While state health officials are focused on managing the problem, Schwarzenegger told the Sacramento Bee that he wants to ... promote spinach sales. He is planning a TV advertisement to help the industry rebound and start making money again.

"We have to help the industry because every so often something like this happens, and we all have to really work together to help them again to get back because they are losing millions of dollars every day," he said.

But the state does bear some responsibility. Natural Selection Farms (Charles Darwin would be pleased with the name) has been fingered as the source of the offending spinach that has sickened about 150 and caused at least one death.

Some MSM reporting has found the farm in violation of a state water disposal permit, for example, and a generally laconic system of inspection statewide. Government health inspectors are now intensely involved in fixing the situation.

And now let me add the political twist. The distributor of the offending Natural Selection spinach is Dole Foods, which undoubtedly has been hit financially by the voluntary recall of packaged spinach. Dole Foods is owned by David Murdock, the 83-year-old healthy-living advocate and philanthropist who is also good friends with Schwarzenegger.

Last year, Schwarzenegger declared Dole Foods an "honor roll company" for helping fight obesity with portable salad bars in K-12 public schools and other healthy-eating programs. Murdock and his company, Castle & Cooke, and its executives have donated $304,600 to Schwarzenegger's various campaigns since 2002.

The administration consistently says that campaign donations never influence the governor. A press spokesman declined to say whether Murdock had contacted Schwarzenegger in recent days to discuss the crisis.

(Photos: Macio Jose Sanchez / AP; Paul Sakuma / AP)