Watch for the "Senate Calendar Tactic"

The upcoming presidential election's campaign cycle has already begun.

Senators on both sides of the isle have already announced their intention of pursuing their party's nomination, and these same Senators are part of a Senate that has a very tight and narrow margin as it relates to the number of votes available on each side of the isle.

This is going to make for a scheduling nightmare in the Senate: the official Senate calendar will become a very powerful political weapon in the hands of the Democrats.

The Democrat controlled Senate will use the Senate calendar to cause all kinds of chaos for the Republicans, and especially for those Republican Senators that are running in presidential campaigns.  They will schedule key votes at times that will force a candidate to either miss an important stop on the campaign trail, or to miss an important vote.

Either way, the Senate calendar will now serve (1) as a means of generating opportunities for the Democrats to pass legislation that they may not have had the margin for if every Republican Senator was present to vote; or, (2) to force Republican candidates to cancel their participation in certain key campaign opportunities in order to be on the Senate floor to vote and "save" a bill from passing or losing.

Personally, I could even see the Democrats scheduling a completely ludicrous bill for a vote just to "force" a Republican Presidential candidate to the Senate floor in Washington D.C. to vote as a saving vote -- all while a prized Democrat candidate would "steal the show" in a west coast political event.

Too far fetched?  Let's watch and see.