Never too soon to caucus

It's never too soon to caucus

Ed Kilgore at FiveThirtyEight offers up a very colorful piece -- oh, us quaint yet wacky Iowans with our Unhealthy Food On A Stick -- that reminds us that Iowa Republicans are less than a year away from the Ames Straw Poll (assuming Ames is on dry land again by then.)

Will some potential president make Fred Thompson's mistake and violate the unwritten but iron rules of Iowa culture between now and then, perhaps disdaining a bite of Hot Beef Sundae or deep-fried Oreos, or failing to express admiration for the winner of the Big Boar Contest, with cameras nearby?

TheIowaRepublican, which has now been rolling out its poll for two whole weeks, and tops it off with the caucuses. The national takeaway is likely to be Sarah Palin's fourth place, but the leader, over a splintered field, is 2008 caucus winner Mike Huckabee.

At least for now. But Huckabee is breaking from the "Dred Scott" orthodoxy of Chuck Grassley and other Republicans, who having failed at winning Hispanic votes, now want to end birthright citizenship in direct opposition to the intent of the framers of the 14th Amendment.

“The Supreme Court has decided that, I think, in three different centuries,” Huckabeee said in a radio interview Wednesday with NPR. “In every single instance, they have affirmed that if you are born in this country, you are considered to be a citizen. The only option there is to change the Constitution.”

But asked Wednesday if he supported such a change, Huckabee responded simply: “No.”

“Let me tell you what I would favor. I would favor having controlled borders,” said the 2008 GOP presidential candidate. “But that's where the federal government has miserably and hopelessly failed us.”

So: will the dynamic of 2008, when the Money Republicans vetoed Huckabee for his economic populism and the Jesus Republicans vetoed Mitt Romney for his religion, play itsel;f out again? Who benefits? Who's even in a position to benefit?