(LA Weekly) Schwarzenegger, according to an insider, asked to go on KFI’s John & Ken Show just a few hours before it aired on April 28. His purpose? To get a quick boost in the L.A. area — where his private polling has him dropping the furthest — by criticizing the "Los Angeles, Mexico" freeway billboard promoting Channel 62’s Spanish-language newscast. Cheap news-flow politics, perhaps, but not unusual.

Schwarzenegger aides say he was merely responding to questions about the Minutemen, but — having received an e-mail tip from an insider, who described the KFI appearance as "potentially suicidal" — I heard the governor bring up the Minutemen favorably himself before being asked about them.

So was the Minuteman move planned? Insiders have two versions: "Spontaneous Arnold" or a decision reached after a brainstorming session with his staff. Fingers point to Communications Director Rob Stutzman. When former Governor Pete Wilson got freshly minted candidate Arnold in hot water a few days after his 2003 announcement to run by revealing that he had voted for Proposition 187 — which eliminated education and services for illegals before being thrown out by the courts — the veteran conservative Stutzman ventured forth to say that Schwarzenegger might well push another Prop. 187. Unbenownst to Stutzman, Schwarzenegger had already publicly reversed his position on Prop. 187.

Stutzman did not respond to questions about the Minuteman move, or about his plans. He is expected to leave the Governor’s Office and move to an Arnold political committee.