Table Scraps and Leftovers

Table Scraps and Leftovers

I'd better get this stuff out of the back of the fridge before it gets moldy.

A couple extra twists to the early calendar:

If Iowa does wind up on Saturday 1/5/08, we'll see a paradoxical lull in campaigning near the end. CQ Politics: "The pivotal campaigning for the first round could come in December. And considering that it will be unseemly to campaign too much over the holidays, it means that the hustings between Thanksgiving and Christmas could be the most crucial."

We'll also be going into caucus night blind. MSNBC: "No self-respecting polling company, he says, does polling between the 20th and 25th of December. So we very well might have no idea how Iowa will break until after the results are in."

Navy Vet Terp at Kos argues for federalizing the primary schedule and offers a good history of the nomination process over the last 100 years. Unlike Kos himself, he's still OK with Iowa and New Hampshire first.

The latest GOP election stealing tactic is the cynical, call it democracy approach: choose presidential electors in California by gerrymandered congressional district rather than at large. This could also be called "Proposition Steal 20 Electoral Votes." At the very least it makes the Dems spend a lot of money to beat it. Why not look at the National Popular Vote Plan? It directs states to award electors to the national popular vote winner, as soon as states controlling a majority of electoral votes agree.

Mary Lundby, having already announced she's running for county supervisor and not state senator in 2008, is also standing down as minority leader effective Sept. 14. Let the GOP Circular Firing Squad begin.

City election filing has started in Iowa City and other primary cities. Day one filers: Ross Wilburn, Michael Wright, Terry Smith. Dee Vanderhoef filed on day two. Usually there's a lull now; candidates tend to file at the beginning of filing periods and at the last minute, with very few in the middle.

And as the neo-prohibitionists gear up for the 21 bar ordinance, take note that not everyone is playing along with the MADD game:

A quiet movement to lower the legal drinking age to 18 is taking root as advocates argue that teenagers who are allowed to vote and fight for their country should also be able to enjoy a beer or two.