» Let’s start off with the Political Pop Quiz. Today’s question: On what date is the Iowa presidential caucus scheduled? The answer is below. No peeking!

» Apparently, the Democratic candidates visiting Nevada have Republicans all upset that bright-red Nevada may turn blue in 2008. According to the Review-Journal, GOP types are looking at moving their party’s caucus up earlier so as not to let the Democrats get too far ahead.

"If the Democrats do this unabated, these Democratic campaigns are going to come in, spend money, put teams on the ground, and we [Republicans] run the risk of them building a comparable or even better [get out the vote] operation. That could change the dynamic of this state from red to blue in a hurry. … This is too close of a state to allow something like that to happen," said R&R Partner (and GOP consultant) Pete Ernaut.

From your lips to God’s ears, Pete, although from what we hear, God doesn’t really like the Democrats that much.

But Ernaut is right in his analysis. One of the many reasons U.S. Sen. Harry Reid was smart to engineer an earlier Nevada caucus was to build the party’s ground game, which has always lagged behind that of Republicans. If Democrats had done just a little bit better job at turnout in Clark County, Tessa Hafen probably would have been a congresswoman and Dina Titus may well have been governor.

Ernaut isn’t the only Republican who’s worried. Somebody named Paul Willis, who is temporarily in charge of the state Republican Party since Gov. Jim Gibbons forced out former Chairman Paul Adams, had this to say (no doubt spitting wildly about the room as he said it): "I think the Democrat caucus is a gimmick and a scheme and a sham. It may bring some contenders and pretenders in here, but they’re still soft on the issues. It’s a lot of hype. If everyone wants to do a Republican caucus, then fine. I don’t think myself that the Republicans should stoop to the gimmickry that the Democrats are doing."

Well, take that, Democrats! (Or don’t; as our colleague Jon Ralston reported in his FLASH e-mail newsletter today, Willis had a much softer take on the early GOP primary idea in his interview with the Reno Gazette-Journal on the same subject. (Man, we never get tired of watching state Sen. Bill Raggio do that Jedi mind trick thing on people!)

Our favorite part of the R-J story, however, is this business about whether or not the White House is secretly involved in getting the Republicans to stage an earlier caucus. On Wednesday, the paper quoted Gibbons chief of staff Mike Dayton saying the White House wanted the Silver State to move things up. But on Thursday, the paper quoted a White House spokesman, saying it just wasn’t so. Hmmmm. Curiouser and curiouser. (Man, we never get tired of watching Karl Rove do that Jedi mind trick thing on people!)

» So how much did the Bush administration dislike Nevada U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden? Apparently, enough to let Bogden leave without a replacement! They’d literally rather have nobody than Bogden, who was responsible for nailing the corrupt politicians in the G-sting case. What gives? We sure wish U.S. Sen. John Ensign, who knows the answer but won’t say, would speak up. (Hint: The cover story that it was for "performance reasons" has proven incorrect. Next answer?)

» So what are you doing on Wednesday evening? Admit it: You’ve got nothing! Well, why not drop by UNLV to hear English professor and novelist Richard Wiley read from and discuss his novel, Commodore Perry’s Minstrel Show? Wiley, who has won the prestigious PEN/Faulkner award, is associate director of the Black Mountain Institute, which is dedicated to bringing top writers to Las Vegas to discuss national and international issues.

Wiley will start the reading at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Barrick Museum Auditorium on the UNLV campus. For more information, call 895-5542. (CityLife is a proud media sponsor of the Black Mountain Institute and its programs.)

» And finally today, the answer to the Political Pop Quiz. Iowa’s presidential caucus is slated for Jan. 14. Nevada goes next with its caucus on Jan. 19, followed by the New Hampshire primary on Jan. 22 and the South Carolina primary on Jan. 29. Here’s the proof.