RNC Rules Committee Tinkers With Calendar

After January, no deluge?

Under a plan approved today by the rules committee of the Republican Party, states would be penalized if they held delegate selection contests before the first Tuesday in March.

That would allow more than a month of campaigning between the privileged early states -- Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.

An Ohio member's more ambitious calendar reform plan to institute rotating regional primaries failed by a vote of 39-to-12.

The McCain campaign supported the March window; they opposed the Ohioan's plan.

The RNC will penalize errant states by taking away half of their delegates.

That punishment did not work in 2008, as Florida and Michigan, both rule violators, played decisive roles in winnowing the field of candidates and eventually handing McCain a victory.