Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would like to get the federal Constitution amended to allow someone foreign-born (i.e., himself) to run for president. On "Meet the Press" on Sunday, the two-term Republican governor invoked the late Tim Russert to do his bidding. Asked by Tom Brokaw about his recollections of the host, who died earlier this month, Schwarzenegger said,

"Several times, and he always did great interviews with a lot of humor, tough questions, but we had a great time, and I really miss him, I have to say that. And he was - I remember when I ran for governor, he called me, and he says, 'If you make that, if you win, then I will take care of the rest.' And I said, 'What are you talking about?' And he says, 'I will get you to run for president. I will make sure that we change the Constitution.' Well, it never happened, but anyway, I miss him very much."

Under (and back onto) the bus rating: Four out of five self-servings at a future Iowa straw poll bar-b-que.

"...Obama threw public financing under the truck," writes David Brooks in The New York Times. "In so doing, he probably dealt a death-blow to the cause of campaign-finance reform. And the only thing that changed between Thursday and when he lauded the system is that Obama’s got more money now."

Under the bus ranking: five out of nine Supreme Court votes to overturn McCain-Feingold.

Barack Obama and John McCain revving their engines to reach the high ground on ethics can only mean one thing: more undercarriage activity.

"Obama and his campaign staunchly defended Jim Johnson against the charge that his ties to troubled mortgage lender Countrywide disqualified him from sitting on Obama's vice presidential search committee," reports Ben Smith of Politico, "but Johnson just pulled the plug: He resigned as chairman of the steering committee just now."

Under the bus rating: 65 mph in a 55 mph speed zone.

Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan writes in a surprisingly scathing memoir to be published next week that President Bush “veered terribly off course,” was not “open and forthright on Iraq,” and took a “permanent campaign approach” to governing at the expense of candor and competence, writes Mike Allen of Politico.

McClellan, who served as press secretary from 2003 to 2006, was much more complimentary on leaving his job. Below is a video from "This Week" in which Pres. Bush recounts that, “One of these day he and I are going to be rocking on chairs in Texas, talking about the good old days of his time as the press secretary.”

McClellan says, “The president has been great to me. Mrs. Bush has been great.”

Under the bus rating: On a scale of one to five, McClellan gets three rear-view mirrors for perfect hindsight.

In one of the more genteel departures from a political campaign, media consultant Mark McKinnon made good on his vow to exit the John McCain campaign because he doesn't want to attack Barack Obama (whom he admires) in the general election.

McKinnon - once a Democrat who later worked on both of the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush - experienced no such vapors in 2004. According to a 2005 Broadcasting & Cable article, "He mounted a brutally effective ad campaign against John Kerry in 2004, which included the 'Windsurfing' spot portraying the Democratic candidate as a rich dilettante." Watch the spot below.

"Under the bus" rating: on a scale of one to five, McKinnon gets a transfer pass.

In lieu of summing up the recent "departures" from the bus, here's a succinct blog post from the Kansas City Star that does the job and notes that it's getting crowded under there.

The blow-up, and blowback, over Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s relationship with Barack Obama, has set an impressive skid mark for “Under the Bus” references. Let’s take the tour…

“My guess is that Mr. Wright felt he’d been thrown under a bus by an ungrateful congregant…” wrote Bob Herbert in his New York Times column on Tuesday, following Wright’s incendiary appearance at the National Press Club.

Then, once Obama held a press conference to denouce Wright, a New York Times blogger found some in the blogosphere tiring of the story and that “they’re sick of the expression “thrown under the bus,” but they keep using it.”

Indeed. A Google blog search finds more than 2,800 references to the term “Under the Bus” + Wright + Obama. A couple of them supply the flavor...

Obama Throws Wright Under the Bus, Runs Him Over, Puts the Vehicle in Reverse and Repeats

Obama, Wright…everybody under the bus!

Joel Achenbach at The Washington Post felt motivated to explore the derivation of the term “Under the Bus” and came up with a parentage that may include Cyndi Lauper, minor league baseball and Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters.

"Under the bus" rating: on a scale of one to five, four campaign buses for taking the term to impressive new heights.

State Rep. Douglas Bruce, fresh off calling migrant workers "illiterate peasants" on the floor of the Colorado House of Representatives, hit the airwaves in Los Angeles to run down his own party.

On KFI AM-640, Bruce told host Steven Gregory, ”They can’t punish me. They know how stupid they would look to say, you know, 'How dare you tell the truth?' I was expressing my opinion. I said I don’t want that. Now how can they criticize me for saying what I don’t want?”

Furthermore, Bruce said, ”We have a Republican majority in the state. But one of the reasons that the Democrats - I’m sorry, the Republicans - lost the majority after 40 years, just as they lost it at the national level, is the Republican Party is filled with a bunch of weenies.”

"Under the Bus" rating: On a scale of one to five, two-and-one-half weenie wagons, hold the mustard.

An unnamed intern on the John McCain presidential campaign is given the fall for publishing recipes on the candidate's Web site as "McCain Family Recipes" even though a number of them were from the Food Network.

"One of our Web interns apparently appointed Rachael Ray as the senior policy adviser in our campaign's department of gourmet," said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds, reported the Associated Press.

Bounds gets credit for handling an awkward situation with humor, though we doubt the intern is laughing.

"Under the Bus" rating: On a scale of one to five, two catering trucks.

Jumped or pushed? That's often the question asked when someone takes a quick exit. Consider Kaye Ferry, who headed the Vail Chamber & Business Association for 18 years. She resigned days after a story on ski passes quoted her describing "Front Range riff-raff."

Ferry denied using the term. But the wheels were clearly in motion.

"The Vail Town Council late last week collectively sent a letter to board members of the Vail Chamber suggesting Ferry be asked to resign,” reported Colorado Confidential, which had the initial interview with Ferry.

To the Vail Daily, Ferry said her resignation had nothing to do with her purported remarks, but also said she’ll now be freer to speak out.

"Under the bus" rating: On a scale of one to five, two ski shuttles.