Picking Scabs

Contrary to popular belief, the first great political event of 2008 is not happening tonight at the Iowa caucuses--it already happened last night on Jay Leno. A number of blogs sympathetic with the WGA strike are suggesting that Leno broke strike rules when he admitted that he wrote his own monologue.

"That's a huge problem," according to Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood Daily, "because it violates the strike rules of one of his unions." As a WGA member, this makes Leno a "scab."

This is not only a potential problem for Leno, but also for Republican Presidential Candidate, Mike Huckabee, who similarly crossed picket lines to appear on the show. Though I suspect he was willing to sacrifice the union vote for the free publicity. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, performed a pre-taped appearance on Letterman. Unlike Huckabee and Leno, Clinton and Letterman come out on the right side of this argument. Letterman's own company, Nation Wide Pants, owns the rights to both the Late Show and the Late Late Show and was therefore able to strike a deal with the WGA.

This demonstrates the true value of owning your own company in this volatile environment. As Letterman climbs from #2 to #1, the Writer's Guild of America gains leverage against NBC to strike a deal, or watch their bread and butter Tonight Show fade into the background as new late night options arise (umm...Daily Show, anyone?).

Apparently, Hillary's appearance on Dave didn't have quite the desired effect in terms of poll numbers. But the ratings will speak for themselves. The first great political battle of 2008 has begun, and it's NBC's move.