Today, we're going to have a special edition of the talking points, where we get to know a Montana politician who seems to be seriously considering taking on Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016. But before we do so, it was a busy week otherwise, so let's just dive right into it. First, a look at what's going with Republicans.

Three separate Republican scandals were in the news this week, as Wisconsin governor Scott Walker was accused of running a criminal scheme out of his office, Congressman Don Young of Alaska was dinged by the House Ethics Committee for airplane rides he should have paid for himself, and prosecutors seem to be closing in on New Jersey governor Chris Christie. But even with all of that going on, the most shocking thing a Republican did wasn't actually a scandal per se, merely scandalous.

Thad Cochran faces a runoff election next week to be the Republican nominee for the Senate seat he now holds. It is expected to be a tight race. Cochran is out there fighting for every vote -- even the bestiality vote. Yes, you read that right. Here he is, addressing a rural Mississippi audience:

I grew up coming down here for Christmas. My father's family was here. My mother's family was from rural Hinds County in Utica. It was fun, it was an adventure to be out there in the country and to see what goes on. Picking up pecans -- from that to all kinds of indecent things with animals. And I know some of you know what that is.

Hoo boy. Not much more you can say about that one, is there?

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The votes are in, and the Republican House caucus has just elected Kevin McCarthy as their new Majority Leader and Steve Scalise as their new Majority Whip. All of this was precipitated, of course, by the current Majority Leader, Eric Cantor, being handed his hat by the voters in his home district. After a roughly one-week "campaign" (which many have likened to a high school popularity contest such as the election of class president), McCarthy will now move up from the third-ranking Republican leadership position to the second, and Scalise will now take over from McCarthy.

What does this mean for the Republican Party, the House, and Congress? Well, it's really too early to say, so instead of hard-nosed analysis, I'm just going to engage in some speculation. Consider yourselves warned, up front.

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Vice President Joe Biden was right. Let's begin with that.

Biden, back in 2006, was the leading proponent (together with Leslie Gelb of the Council on Foreign Relations) of a scheme to divide Iraq into three largely autonomous states: a "Kurdistan" in the north, and a region each for the Sunnis and Shi'ites. This plan was, needless to say, not adopted. Instead, America bet on the political prowess of prime minister Nouri Al Maliki, who was going to form a "reconciliation" government which would give all three groups a share of governmental responsibility in a power-sharing coalition government. This, as it turns out, was a bad bet. If America had forced the Biden plan on Iraq back then, we might be in a radically different place than we find ourselves now.

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No column today, sorry. Spent the whole day dealing with various automotive problems. Fair warning: I might need another day next week to finish up several repairs and registration hassles (Oh, joy! The D.M.V.!).

Tomorrow's column, however, should be a substantial one on the subject of the Middle East, whose situation I've been thinking about for the past few days (along with everyone else). Anyway, regular columns will resume right here -- same bat time, same bat channel -- starting tomorrow. My apologies for the lapse.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant

Yesterday was Fathers' Day. Most dads, even those who happen to be elected officials, were able to relax and enjoy the day by spending some time with their families. California legislators did not have this luxury, due to their own inactivity in the days leading up to a midnight legislative deadline. They worked throughout the weekend to produce the state's budget on time -- which they achieved, late yesterday. But the really newsworthy thing about this was why they decided to work the whole weekend instead of just ignoring the mandated deadline (which they used to routinely do). They put in the overtime hours for one reason and one reason alone: if they hadn't come to an agreement on time, their pay would have stopped at midnight. Call this story the success of the "no budget, no pay" idea, if you will.

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I have to begin this week by apologizing for the irreverent nature of that title, but then how often do you get a chance to coin a cool word like "selenofriggatriskaidekaphobia"? The proper answer is that the chance won't come again until 2049, which explains why we couldn't resist. The word is a mashup of two phobias, the fear of a full moon (selenophobia) and the fear of Friday the 13th (friggatriskaidekaphobia, not to be confused with fear of the number 13, which is just triskaidekaphobia, of course). The rare occurrence of a full moon on a Friday the 13th won't happen again for another 35 years, so today's pretty much it for this generation of selenofriggatriskaidekaphobics, at least. But enough of this looney etymological fun, let's get on with a week chock-full of political happenings, shall we?

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In one week, House Republicans will vote on a replacement for Eric Cantor, who will be stepping down from his Majority Leader position (due to his loss in this week's primary). This vote will provide a test of strength for both the Tea Party faction and for the Establishment Republicans. Who wins this power struggle may eventually determine the direction of the Republicans in the House for years to come, meaning it'll be a fairly important vote.

Since Cantor's unexpected and shocking loss, the jockeying to replace him has been fast and furious. The three House leadership positions, in descending rank, are: the Speaker of the House, the Majority Leader, and the Majority Whip. Speaker John Boehner has publicly stated that he will not be taking sides in the battle for the number two position, and he also (if rumors are to be believed) very quietly leaked that he will not -- as some have speculated -- be stepping down from his own leadership position after this year's midterms. This assumes the Republicans will retain the majority in the House, which is a pretty safe bet, at this point.

Cantor, however, has stated he'd like the current Majority Whip to replace him as Majority Leader. The representative who holds this job is Kevin McCarthy, from California. At this point, he is the clear frontrunner from the Establishment Republican faction. The Tea Party has not rallied around a single candidate yet, although at this point it looks like Pete Sessions from Texas may be who the Tea Partiers get behind. An intra-Texas rivalry between Sessions and Jeb Hensarling was avoided when Hensarling decided to take himself out of the running (this was important, because Texans alone represent a full ten percent of all House Republicans).

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Every so often, the American political world is turned upside down. Last night was one of those moments, as House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was "primaried" out of a job. Nobody (including me) predicted this upset. Today, pundits are falling all over themselves to come up with an appropriate metaphor for the magnitude of Cantor's loss on the political scene. Living in California as I do, I'm going to go with earthquake terminology: this was a massive and cataclysmic temblor for Republicans -- the equivalent of about a 9.0 on the political Richter scale.

Snap judgments abound today in the chattering classes, who are all trying to figure out "what it all means" -- what message the voters in Cantor's district really meant to send in the voting booth. Cantor, according to just a sampling of these quick reactions, was "not conservative enough," or "got beaten by the Tea Party," or "was out of touch with his district" (mostly by "paying too much attention to national politics at the expense of local politics"), or was "just too unlikeable and self-serving," or even "was Jewish." Take your choice -- there are proponents of all of these arguments (and far more) out there in the media right now, vying for position. I guess my favorite storyline so far is the one crediting Ben "Cooter" Jones with orchestrating a movement of Democratic voters to cause mischief in the Republican primary by ousting Cantor (no hard data has either proven or disproven this assertion, to date, I should note).

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When we look back at this particular week much later on, it seems we'll remember it as the week the 2016 presidential race truly began in earnest. Measured by the sheer volume of headlines generated and punditry produced, now will be seen as the moment when Hillary Clinton reintroduced herself to America. With the kickoff of her book tour, Clinton has already started tongues wagging (in a major way) about what her chances will be in 2016.

I realize this may disappoint those who prefer one election (this year's midterms) to be over before we all start talking about the next one. It may delight those who love the former First Lady and Secretary of State. It may even disgust those who have always hated her famous husband, or who just can't stand Hillary herself. But it brings up one question, at least for me. This is the least-consequential question raised, I should warn, in a week chock-full of inconsequential questions (at least, as evidenced by her television interviews so far). Call me irresponsible, but what I've been wondering (as I foresee many, many columns about Clinton in the future) is: what should we call her?

I'm not talking about epithets or vicious labels. I will leave that to Rightwingistan, as I have no doubt whatsoever that they'll come up with some doozies. What I'm talking about instead is a nickname that can be used both "in polite company" and also with more joshing-good-fun than malice.

Hey, I warned you it would be an inconsequential question.

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A rule change was announced today by the White House which will make it somewhat easier for some students to repay their student loans. While any such change should be applauded as a step in the right direction, the wonky nature of the changes aren't exactly a restructuring of how the student loan program works. It's a few baby steps in the right direction, but these changes do not go far enough by a long shot.

A proposal from Senator Elizabeth Warren would drastically change the program, but so far it hasn't gotten President Obama's full-throated support. While I understand that Obama can rightly say that he's doing what he can on student loans outside of Congress, if he truly wanted to reform the program he would get solidly behind Warren's proposal and push it as hard as possible, in an effort to shame at least the Senate into acting upon it.

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