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Tue Oct 19,11:50 AM ET

MONTEREY, Calif. (Reuters) - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Monday that his speech backing President Bush at the Republican Convention in August resulted in a dramatic cold shoulder from his wife Maria Shriver, a member of the very Democratic Kennedy family.

"Well, there was no sex for 14 days," Schwarzenegger told former White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta in an on-stage conversation in front of 1,000 people. "Everything comes with side effects."

The crowd roared with laughter, but the governor may have been serious: he has said little in public to back fellow Republican Bush since then. Panetta, a Democrat, had asked him how Shriver, whose uncle was U.S. President John F. Kennedy, had reacted to his praised but partisan prime-time convention speech.

The governor referred to Shriver several times in the 90-minute conversation.

"I don't know why I watched the presidential debates," he said. "If I want to watch a smart liberal Democrat and a Republican leader argue, all we have to do is go out to dinner. They were lucky. They only had to do it three times."

At another point he was asked about the difference between working in Hollywood following scripts and being on his own in politics. "When you're married to my wife, you're never your own boss," he quipped.

California is expected to back Democratic challenger John Kerry in the election in two weeks, and Schwarzenegger, who faces re-election in 2006, has been careful not to offend the majority Democratic voters in his state.

"I think both are doing a great job; it's very tedious to be out there campaigning a year and a half," he said at the Panetta Institute for Public Policy in Monterey south of San Francisco. "You make one mistake and you lose the presidency."

Schwarzenegger did say the one state where he might campaign for Bush outside of California was Ohio, where he owns a gym and sponsors an annual body building competition.

"I said to the president I'm perfectly willing to go to Ohio if he needs me there but I can't travel around from state to state because I'm working for the people of California," he said.