Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain’s campaign appears to be readying to run ads at Iowa’s leading network TV station, according to filings at KCCI-TV in Des Moines.

Leslie Gillette contacted the advertising department at the local CBS affiliate on Nov. 11 on behalf of Friends of Herman Cain, requesting rates for 30-second ads between Nov. 19 and Jan. 3. Gillette works for Victory Enterprises in Davenport, a conservative political consulting, technology and market research company.

Steve Grubbs, founder and CEO of Victory Enterprises, is Cain’s Iowa campaign chairman. He’s also a former state representative and chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa.

The Cain campaign last week released TV ads running statewide on FOX News Channel. A spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency said on Monday the claims made in those ads – that the EPA wants to regulate methane from cattle and dust from farms – are untrue.

According to CNN, Bachmann’s campaign manager Keith Nahigian walked through the spin room and called Dickerson a “piece of shit.”

Prior to Saturday night’s foreign policy debate in South Carolina hosted by CBS and National Journal, Bachmann spokesperson Alice Stewart was accidentally copied on an email about a post debate webshow hosted by CBS. The email said that Bachmann would not receive the same amount of attention that the frontrunners would due to her low polling numbers.

Here’s a screenshot of the email provided by the Bachmann campaign:

During the debate, campaign manager Keith Nahigian sent a message to Bachmann supporters on Facebook:

“While Michele has been onstage at tonight’s debate demonstrating strong leadership on foreign policy and national security, we received concrete evidence confirming what every conservative already knows – the liberal mainstream media elites are manipulating the Republican debates by purposely suppressing our conservative message and limiting Michele’s questions,” he said. “[W]e need to show the liberal media elite that we won’t stand for this outrageous manipulation. Help us fight this affront by sharing this with your friends.”

Nahigian followed that up with an email message to supporters accusing the media of anti-Bachmann bias (Nahigian’s emphasis).

“[W]e will NOT stand for this pathetic attempt by the liberal media to manipulate the Republican primary process by limiting Michele’s conservative message for Republican primary voters,” he wrote. “ALL AMERICANS should be offended by this blatant attempt to manipulate the nominating process. Primaries are about voters, NOT the media elites. This is OUR primary and we will fight this blatant attempt to suppress Michele’s conservative message.”

According to CNN, during the debate, Nahigian ran through the spin room where the media and campaign staffers were gathered and said, “John Dickerson should be fired. He is a piece of shit. He is a fraud and he should be fired.”

After the debate, Bachmann told CNN, “I think it’s only respectful to allow the candidates to be able to speak and not intentionally ahead of time make a decision to limit candidates’ opportunity to speak to the American people. Clearly this was an example of media bias.”

The battle over Medicare has hit the airways in Iowa, as a group dedicated to fighting cuts to the popular government program has begun buying TV ads in Des Moines.

The Partnership to Protect Medicare spent $39,390 at the local CBS and NBC affiliates in Des Moines between Nov. 5 and Nov. 8. The bi-partisan, 501(c)4 non-profit was formed in 2011.

The ad asks viewers to call U.S. Rep. Tom Latham (R-Ames) and “thank him for protecting seniors at their greatest time of need.”

“Medicare represents a promise made to Americans that they will have access to quality affordable health care as they age or if they become disabled,” the group’s website reads.

It’s not the first issue-based group to buy ads in the state in recent months. The National Popular Vote initiative spent $62,890 in the state in October, and American Petroleum had bought $49,403 worth of ads in the state since late April.

Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, which has ties to former White House deputy chief Karl Rove, has ads scheduled to run through Nov. 7 at both KCCI and WHO in Des Moines. KCCI – the local CBS affiliate – and WHO – the local NBC affiliate – are the two biggest networks in Iowa’s capitol and largest city.

Crossroads has so far spent $186,556 at the two stations, with ads running since late June. The spot being run targets U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell, (D-Des Moines), and President Obama.

Boswell and the Iowa Democratic Party responded to the ads last week, with Boswell’s campaign asking for donations to combat the ads and the IDP saying Crossroads is trying to support Boswell’s 2012 challenger and U.S. Rep. Tom Latham (R-Ames).

Crossroads then lashed back at Boswell, saying the statements from his campaign and the IDP don’t explain why he voted for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

According to OpenSecrets.org, the 501(c)(4) “outside spending” group spent $15.1 million against Democrats in the 2009-10 cycle and $479,619 for Republicans. It spent another $1.1 million on electioneering communications. The group doesn’t disclose its donors.

American Crossroads, a related “super PAC,” raised $26.5 million in 2010 and spent $21.5 million. It raised and spent the most out of any independent expenditure-only committees in 2010.

The super PAC, which must disclose its donors, has raised $6.6 million so far this cycle.

Crossroads GPS focuses on seven issues, according to its website: lower taxes, less government spending, building the private sector, reducing government worker pay, shutting down the borders, reworking health care reform, pushing for American energy development.

Paul has ads scheduled to run through early November at KCCI and WHO in Des Moines, the local CBS and NBC affiliates and the two biggest networks in Iowa’s capitol and largest city.

Paul has spent $172,336 so far at the two stations, unleashing a blitz in October that will apparently continue for the foreseeable future. He’s got $38,080 worth of ads ready to go through his most recent buys.

Meanwhile, Perry has made a splash in recent days, grabbing $56,137 worth of ads since late October. His most recent buy is $29,665 in spots running through Nov. 7 at KCCI.

Bachmann continues to lag in the ad war race after making a couple substantial buys in August. Her campaign spent $14,535 at KCCI for ads beginning Aug. 3, and $15,376 at WHO beginning that same date. But since then she hasn’t made any purchases, and her total stands at $35,138.

National frontrunners Herman Cain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney have yet to purchase ads in the Des Moines market; neither have former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum or former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who dropped out of the race after a mediocre showing at the Ames Straw Poll in August, $166,511 on ads at KCCI and WHO.

And the largest purchaser of ads at KCCI, the local CBS affiliate in Des Moines, isn’t even in the GOP race anymore.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty spent $100,090 on ads at KCCI in July and August but dropped out of the race after a mediocre showing at the Ames Straw Poll on Aug. 13.

Texas U.S. Rep. Ron Paul has spent $58,139 at KCCI, including a $20,357 purchase for ads running from Oct. 25 to Nov. 3. He first bought ads in mid-July.

Minnesota U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann has spent just $17,085 at KCCI, and hasn’t purchased ads since mid-August.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum and businessman Herman Cain have yet to buy ads at KCCI.

President Obama, speaking at a rally in Philadelphia, said “the American people deserve to know who is trying to sway their elections” and raised the possibility that foreigners could be funding his opponents.

“You don’t know,” Obama said at the rally for Senate candidate Joe Sestak and other Democrats. “It could be the oil industry. It could even be foreign-owned corporations. You don’t know because they don’t have to disclose.”

Karl Rove, Ed Gillespie: They’re Bush cronies. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce: They’re shills for big business. And they’re stealing our democracy. Spending millions from secret donors to elect Republicans to do their bidding in Congress. It appears they’ve even taken secret foreign money to influence our elections. It’s incredible: Republicans benefiting from secret foreign money. Tell the Bush crowd and the Chamber of Commerce: Stop stealing our democracy.

George Washington Law Professor Orin Kerr at The Volokh Conspiracy speculates that the couple is likely to be hit with a charge under 18 U.S.C. § 1036: “Entry by false pretenses to any real property, vessel, or aircraft of the United States or secure area of any airport or seaport.”

That could be coupled with trespass charges and charges for whatever misrepresentation was involved in their sneaking into the dinner. 18 U.S.C. § 1001, notes Kerr, would be one good option, as it’s so broad that it essentially criminalizes lying to the federal government. The law goes after:

Whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly and willfully–
(1) falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact;
(2) makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; or
(3) makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry;shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 5 years . . .

The Salahis will presumably try to get around all that by saying they didn’t actually lie but somehow just left the impression that they were on the president’s guest list. I still think it’ll be tough to get around section (1) of that law, and Kerr explains how the various charges could all be bundled together to make one big fat felony.

Even if the exact criminal violations remain unclear, Kerr notes one thing that’s evident at this point: “Crashing a White House state dinner, and then bragging about it on Facebook, is really really dumb.”

It’s John McCain the presidential candidate all over again — stand up for principle and back down from it all in one sentence. Listen to Sunday’s interview here.  In one breath, McCain is saying we shouldn’t “criminalize policy differences” or “settle old political scores”, and moments later he’s acknowledging that the United States violated two of the most important international legal treaties it has ever entered: the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture, signed by President Ronald Reagan.

The mantra that we shouldn’t criminalize bad advice keeps being repeated, particularly by Republicans opposed to any sort of investigation. But it completely ignores the fact that if that bad advice was intentional – as much of the evidence seems to suggest — and if it was directed by senior policymakers, then both the lawyers and their bosses have broken the law. And as McCain himself implies at the end of the interview, the Convention Against Torture requires the United States to prosecute violations.

Unfortunately, Schieffer didn’t press McCain to clarify his contradictory answers.

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But a glance at a globe shows how misdirected this claim is. No flight from Moscow to Washington would go anywhere near Alaska — they fly over the Atlantic. Take a look at Delta’s flight routes to Moscow. Even flights from San Francisco go over the Atlantic:

To confirm, I plugged some numbers into MapCrow. Sure enough, the transatlantic route from Washington to Moscow is just 4,857 miles. A flight from Washington to Provideniya, Siberia (the closest Russian city to Alaska) is 4,007 miles — and then it’s an additional 3,973 miles to Moscow.

So the Palin route is nearly twice as long as the logical route.

And Palin’s claim that you can see Russia from Alaska is dubious. On a clear day, you can see one sparsely populated Russian island from one sparsely populated Alaskan island.

But it’s OK if her geography’s a little weak — Laura Bush says the GOP’s vice-presidential nominee is a quick study.