Lost in the hubbub over Hurricane Gustaf, party leaders’ phone-ins and Republican preganancy rates is what should have been a triumphal return by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzegger to the Nicollet Island Park Pavilion in Minneapolis, where last night his state’s delegation held a late-night party under twinkling red, white and blue lights.

The pavilion — a former boiler works and rubber factory — together with its surrounding parkland grounds portrayed a granary and a dump, respectively, in Schwarzenegger’s 1996 film, “Jingle All the Way” (pictured above). Filming tied up the site for the better part of a winter, with Schwarzegger in his pre-politics days sometimes sighted marching down nearby lanes alongside his body double, both chomping cigars.

The film was not among the several Arnold flicks handed out gratis on DVD at last night’s event, according to a Los Angeles Times blog, which cites a bartender at the Nicollet Island Pavilion who noted the irony in that “Jingle” was filmed there. 

Talks over a state budget crunch kept Schwarzenegger in Sacramento this week, meaning he missed a scheduled RNC speaking slot as well as state delegation events like last night’s. Such details didn’t keep Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty at home earlier this year, but then Pawlenty was nursing an ambition for an office — vice president — which Schwarzenegger can’t hope to attain under the U.S. Constitution’s current native-son requirement.