It's All Karl Rove's Fault

Some people really dislike Arnold Schwarzenegger. And when they write about him, they often focus on a couple of things, such as his Nazi father, his meeting in 2001 with Enron CEO Ken Lay, and his claim about studying a Nixon-Humphrey debate in 1968 that never occurred.

Check out Bill Hare's screed about Schwarzenegger in Political Cortex. Seat yourself in Hare's way-back machine and suddenly it's about 10 days before the 2003 recall, when many of these theories were bubbling up:

"While Dick Cheney ignored Enron's cutthroat tactics and proclaimed that the tragedy demonstrated the necessity for more offshore drilling to increase America's energy supply, (Gov. Gray) Davis was the unlucky figure to be standing in the wake of a falling giant oak.... Never mind the facts. Karl Rove saw an opportunity and seized it. The time was ripe for a recall election to defeat the unpopular Davis and Rove had just the candidate in mind, someone who already had heavy-duty name value due to film star status."

Except that it has been pretty well established that Rove — much like the rest of the East Coast elite — didn't know what to make of Schwarzenegger and the California recall. They believed it would be better to have a weakened Davis in office in 2006, so that Condoleezza Rice could run for governor here. They polled on it, and she beat Schwarzenegger handily.

Joe Mathews writes in his new book, "The People's Machine," about Schwarzenegger's visit to the White House in April 2003: "On his way out, Schwarzenegger passed Rove, who pointed to Rice down a hall. There, Rove said, is your competition." Rove was referring to 2006; to most people, the recall was just a fantasy at that point.

(Photo: Shawn Thew / EPA)