I haven't given much consideration over what I would do if I were Queen of the Primary Rules, but one item I would change first-I would have all primaries for a given party occur on the same day in the same month and emulate Oregon's vote by mail system. I know it's great for all the television moguls to have the primaries stretch over months and months but it's a stupid system for voters. And there has to be some other way of getting out information about candidates instead of having *debate* after *debate* that actually doesn't engage the participants in meaningful discussion and usually avoids some of the most pressing questions people want to know.

If we can't get a full quorum at the FEC, the whole commission's purpose is defeated.  The committee is down to 2 out of 6 members with the democratic majority refusing to act on any of Bush's nominations.

I guess if we can wait until after the next inauguration, they might get the rest of the vacancies filled. 

McCain made himself pretty unpopular with other Republicans by jointly authoring the Feingold McCain finance reform.  How ironical it would be if he gets bit by the very law that he helped enact.

I actually don't have a problem with the Senate pushing back on the nominees. In the latest article about FEC nominations, Harry Reid is asking for an equal number of Democrat and Republican nominees on the board, which seems eminently fair to me!

The FEC shutdown looked like it was on its way to being resolved when controversial Republican nominee Hans Von Spakovsky removed his name from consideration earlier this week.

But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), rejected a demand by the White House to clear a long list of other executive branch nominations, saying the FEC standoff had to be settled first. The election watchdog agency has been unable to do major work all year because there are only two working commissioners and four are required to have a quorum at the FEC.

The White House sent a three page list of executive nominations earlier this week, but they did not include all the FEC nominations, and Reid wants an equal number of Democrats and Republicans on the commission so it can act on critical items like public financing for the presidential race.

"We had been working toward a solution ... but he [Reid] is not going to agree to it until the FEC is resolved," said Reid spokesman Jim Manley.

Frankly, I"ve been wondering whether Bush would WANT to make sure the FEC is properly staffed, since one of the major issues pending is John McCain's violations of campaign financing rules.

An additional thought about voting in the U.S.

Many countries around the world REQUIRE by law that people vote. There are various punishments for those who don't, e.g., monetary penalties, loss of driver's license, etc.

I believe that here we should pass a law that requires people to vote, but of course our legislators wouldn't do that because most of them like that Americans don't vote.  It keeps the status quo.

I believe it to be another issue of power & control.