Washington's governor, Democrat Gary Locke, has summoned the Legislature back to Olympia to do just one thing -- to cancel the 2004 presidential primary, now scheduled for early March.

Locke: "There's no need for a presidential party that neither party is going to use. We can save $7 million in the process by canceling the primary for this one time."

Let me ask: does a democracy seem out of whack when the government has to cancel elections because it's broke, but the candidates are raising record sums?