The American Spectator

p> LIFE OF RILEY br> We won’t know until November if President Bush has electoral coat tails. But when it comes to raising cash, he sure seems to have the knack for Republican candidates. Take Bush’s visit last Monday to Birmingham, Alabama, where he stumped for U.S. Rep. Bob Riley , the Republican nominee for governor. /p>

Speaking before a group of 2,800 GOP loyalists, Bush pressed for Riley, posed for pictures (a $50,000 donation got a grip and grin shot with the big guy), then skedaddled home to Washington. For that effort, Bush raked in $3.8 million for Riley, who had barely $500,000 in the bank until Tuesday morning. There are no limits on how much an individual can donate to a state candidate in Alabama, so who paid what beyond the $1,000 and $50,000 benchmarks that were set for the price of admission won’t be known until new state campaign donation records are filed later this year.

Still, Bush’s haul for Riley is impressive when you consider that he spent barely four hours in the state and ducked out before Riley even took the podium for his own speech. The president has made similar appearances across the country of late, most recently in Minnesota, where he pulled in more than $2 million for candidates there.

He raised more than $3 million for California gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon last spring. “But he did that over two days, so it doesn’t really count,” says a Riley campaign staffer. “We think we set the one-day record for fundraising for an individual candidate.”

p> GOV. BARBARIAN br> Some people attending the National Governors’ Association meeting in Idaho were surprised by how definitive action-movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger was in touting a future run on his part for governor of California. The Austrian-born muscle man has toyed with the idea before, and has allowed his name to be linked to various “Draft Ah-nold” drives, mostly by Southern California Republicans. /p>