But that was then...

Bush Inc. has scheduled the latest GOP convention in history, in an attempt to capitalize on the sentiment surrounding the 9/11 anniversary (courtesy of the people who warned Democrats not to "play politics" with the attacks). But they may have been too clever by half.

The GOP's unusually late nominating convention -- it does not begin until Aug. 30 -- is the problem. Bush is not scheduled to accept his party's nomination until Sept. 2, 2004. That falls after the deadline for certifying presidential candidates not only in Alabama, but also in California, the District of Columbia and West Virginia. There are bills in the Alabama legislature to move its deadline from Aug. 31 to Sept. 5. But if, for some reason, they don't pass, the president would be forced to run there as a write-in candidate.

In other states, along with the District, the situation is a bit more murky. The D.C. City Council will need to change its Sept. 1 deadline to accommodate the convention, said Alice Miller, executive director of the Board of Elections and Ethics. She declined to speculate on what might happen if that deadline isn't changed. Cindy Smith, an elections official in West Virginia, can probably sympathize. Her state requires candidates to file by Aug. 31. Smith said she does not know of any effort to move that deadline -- and is unsure of what might happen if the president misses it.

I recall a certain 2000 Republican candidate being very, very insistent that the dates in election laws were sacrosanct and immutable. If the Democrat-controlled assemblies in these three states and DC don't move their certification dates to accomodate him, I'd be somewhat less than sympathetic and the administration would have no grounds to claim chicanery. Not that they wouldn't anyhow. "They refused to change the rules just for us, and we therefore suspect that they are French spies."