The frustration must be considerable. The Republicans in Idaho have a strong favorite – former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney – among the Republican candidates for president. But what can they do? no action by Idaho Republicans will have any practical effect on the race until May, and unless this thing goes to the convention (to be sure, a live possibility at this point) they won’t have any real say in it.

So they did a non-binding straw vote today. (First place with 42 votes, predictably, went to Romney, second to former Senator Fred Thompson, with 21.) It doesn’t effect convention delegates, which is the hard currency in securing nominations. But who knows? Maybe there’s some limited psychological value, especially right now, as Romney is in a fierce-tight struggle for supremacy with Arizona Senator John McCain in Michigan. If his Idaho backers were going to do something, this may well have been the time.