Governor Schwarzenegger of California may have endorsed Senator McCain for president, but he is signaling that he may be willing to serve in the Cabinet of a President Obama. Appearing on ABC’s “This Week” yesterday, the Republican governor was asked if he would accept an offer from Mr. Obama to be an energy or environmental czar in his administration. “I’m always ready to help in any way I can the United States,” Mr. Schwarzenegger said. Although he supports Mr. McCain, he said he would take Mr. Obama’s call “now, and I’d take his call when he’s president, anytime.” The former bodybuilder and box office star-turned-politician said he was done with acting and was committed to a career in public service even after his tenure at the California statehouse ends. Mr. Schwarzenegger has staked out a reputation as a moderate who has railed against partisanship in Washington. He praised both candidates for moving to the political center during the general election and even for changing their positions on some issues, saying that “flip-flopping gets a bad rap.”

OBAMA CAMP CRITICIZES SATIRICAL NEW YORKER COVER

The Obama campaign is criticizing a satirical New Yorker magazine cover that depicts the candidate and his wife as terrorists in the White House as “tasteless and offensive.” The cover of this week’s issue shows the couple in the Oval Office as an American flag burns in the fireplace and a portrait of Osama bin Laden hangs above the mantle. Mr. Obama, wearing a turban, is fist-bumping with his wife, who has an automatic rifle slung over her shoulder. The magazine said the cartoon aims to satirize “the use of scare tactics and misinformation in the Presidential election to derail Barack Obama’s campaign.” An Obama spokesman wasn’t buying it. “The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama’s right-wing critics have tried to create. But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree,” the spokesman, Bill Burton, told Politico. A spokesman for Senator McCain seconded that sentiment in an e-mail message to the Web site.

MCCAIN AIDE: GRAMM NO LONGER GIVING ECONOMIC ADVICE

A former Texas senator is no longer giving economic advice to Senator McCain after the candidate chastised him for saying the nation is in a “mental recession.” A senior economic adviser to the campaign, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, said on PBS Friday that Phil Gramm was off the campaign. Following Mr. Gramm comments that America was “a nation of whiners” about the economy, Mr. McCain distanced himself from his longtime friend and joked that Mr. Gramm would be banished to Belarus in his administration.

IRAN CRITICIZES MCCAIN CIGARETTE JOKE

Iran’s Foreign Ministry has condemned remarks by Senator McCain that exporting cigarettes could be a way of killing Iranians. The state-owned English-language Iran daily has a quoted ministry spokesman, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, denouncing the remarks as “inappropriate” and describing Mr. McCain’s attitude as “regretful.” Last week, the presumptive Republican nominee was asked about an Associated Press report that America exported $158 million-worth of cigarettes to Iran during the Bush administration, despite restrictions on American imports. “Maybe that’s a way of killing them,” Mr. McCain said. He then said that he was joking. Iran has officially announced that it supports neither American presidential campaign but does want the election to bring a change in American foreign policy.

REPORT: OBAMA SAYS BILL CLINTON WOULD BE ‘COMPLICATION’

The Obama campaign would not comment yesterday on a report during the weekend that the presumptive Democratic nominee had told a top donor to Senator Clinton that the former first lady was in contention for the vice presidency, but that her husband would be “a complication.” The Los Angeles Times reported Saturday that Mr. Obama called the donor, Jill Iscol of Westchester, because she had been unhappy about the treatment of Mrs. Clinton. When she asked about the vice presidency, Mr. Obama said Mrs. Clinton remained on the list but that he had to consider President Clinton as well, she told the paper. “He said once you’re a president, even if you’re a former president, you’re always a president,” Ms. Iscol said in the article. An Obama spokesman, Josh Earnest, refused to comment on the report when asked about it yesterday during a campaign conference call. “We have not talked in any detail at all about the running mate process, or people whose names have been floated, so we’ll continue that policy today,” he said.