Arnold Schwarzenegger is coming under fire, believe it or not, for making an appearance on “Tonight with Jay Leno” last night.

Schwarzenegger has appeared five times on the late-night talk show since he announced his candidacy for governor on the show on 6 August 2003. The governor talked mostly about seeing supermodel Heidi Klum in the green room, but the Democratic Party responded indignantly today, saying that the governor was violating the equal-time rule.

Phil Angelides’ campaign manager wrote to California NBC affiliates insisting that Angelides get equal time on the Leno show. Unfortunately for Angelides, the FCC has already ruled indirectly in favor of Schwarzenegger. In a September 2003 declaratory ruling, the FCC declared that “The Howard Stern Show,” which wanted to have Schwarzenegger as a guest but was concerned that Stern would then have to give equal time to all of the other gubernatorial candidates, was an instance of “exempt bona fide news interview programming.”

There’s much more on the equal time rule at The Museum of Broadcast Communications website, including suggestions for further reading.