The scary thing to remember, looking at the gaggle of Republican presidential candidates, is that one of these clowns could actually become president!

Here we are, on the eve of the all-important Iowa straw poll--the event that could determine the future of Tommy Thompson's presidential bid!--and I haven't had much to say about the presidential race. I still don't, but I realize the day is coming when I'm going to have to--or anyways, nobody will be able to stop me.

Meanwhile, I would argue that I've been taking the race more seriously than the Republicans, as witness this breathless dispatch by Erin Jordan in today's Des Moines Register, as we count down to the big day in Iowa:

Staff for Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo are looking into a hoax e-mail sent today to nearly 500 people saying buses transporting Tancredo supporters to Saturday's straw poll in Ames had been canceled.

"This is a blatant attempt to derail our efforts for the straw poll," said Alan Moore, spokesman for Rep. Tancredo, R-Colo.

The bogus e-mail sent around 10:45 a.m. today to about 490 recipients stated the Tancredo campaign had canceled 10 buses and changed the pickup times for 40 other buses.

The e-mail said the changes were made "because of efforts by some of our opponents, a number of businesses have been forced to deny our ability to use their sites for parking and coordinated campaign activities."

Frankly, it sounds like the hoax is that there are 500 Tancredo supporters in Iowa waiting for those buses.

My guess is that the whole situation could be resolved if one of the Five (In-)Famous (Non-)Fighting Romney Boys (our motto: "Hell, no, we're adults and on the whole we think we'd just as soon not go!") checked out one of the fleet of Romney RVs and transported the Tancredo voters to Ames.

And these days Tancredo has to be thought to represent the "serious" tier of the R candidates, as distinct from what we might call the "clown" contingent of this circus, represented by McCain, Giuliani, and Papa Mitt.

As I found myself writing on an online list today: Could the Rs use poor old Harold Stassen now, or what? Poking through the pack--with a very long stick--you have to figure that this could have been his year. The perennial GOP contender (nine times between 1948 and 1992) was an august statesman by comparison with these yutzes.

Come to think of it, Stassen died as recently as 2001, and he wasn't even 94 at the time. Still sounds like the class of the field to me.