Maybe With Hermione's Time Turner

Maybe With Hermione's Time Turner

Iowa Democratic Party press release, conference at 2:45 PM: Governor Chet Culver will join Secretary of State Michael Mauro and IDP Chair Scott Brennan to hold a press conference to discuss plans for Iowa’s first in the nation caucus. The Governor, Sec. of State and Chair commit to holding caucus in 2008.

I'm on the road and out of the loop, but here's my question: How can we be first AND in calendar 2008 AND 8 days before New Hampshire which is likely to be Tuesday 1/8/08? What kind of deus ex machina wizardry will that require?

"Three turns should do it, I think, Miss Granger." So we save the caucuses AND Sirius AND Buckbeak.

Is Iowa going to need a special legislative session to eliminate the 8 day requirement and go first, but not by much, on Friday 1/4/08? Or does anyone even care about that law?

That's always been the aspect of Iowa and New Hampshire that I find the silliest -- those laws that say "our state has to be first." Hello? Duh? Like, uh, what if some OTHER state passes the SAME law?

Also interesting: the way the South Carolina GOP and New Hampshire cozied up on this. That old Iowa-NH alliance is dead (1983-2006, RIP) -- in large part because a certain former governor was more interested in getting on the ticket than in protecting the caucuses.