"Listen. Do you want to know a secret? Do you promise not to tell?"

No, it's not the lyrics to the famed Beatles song. This is deep politics and strategy.

What has seemed for so long to be a far-distant Iowa caucus is now about to arrive in less than a month.

First, the secrets. There are plenty of people who've worked in presidential campaigns, or who have deep knowledge of how the system works. For them, this will not come as a great surprise, especially for those who are familiar with the old term "street money."

They'll know that street money was used primarily in Southern or big-city elections in the past. Maybe it won't come as a surprise, either, that there has also been a more quietly kept tradition of "cash for a vote" in past Iowa contests.

Here's how it has worked in some instances: Potential voters were recruited by deep-pocketed campaigns, often from states other than Iowa. They were put on buses to be delivered to the appointed caucus locations.

While Iowa has taken measures to end the "invasion" of out-of-state participants in this year's caucus, it's unlikely that the use of "gratuities" by at least one or two campaigns will come to an end.

Is there proof positive, a smoking gun or a photo of $100 exchanging hands for any voter's participation? Absolutely not. But then again, there has never been that same evidence for the widely accepted fact that payment of voters in the Southern and big-city races has taken place. But it has.

The real problem this go-round is that some of the big-money candidates have squandered their cash. One wonders whether their campaigns, or their friends, have managed to hold on to enough loot to provide the presents and gratuities necessary to pull otherwise uninterested voters out of their homes, to force them to remain locked in some community center, where they must listen to advocates for candidates and remain firmly entrenched in the corner of the facility until their candidates' votes are finally counted.

And, of course, those buses are less likely this time to be carrying any shipment of "Iowans" who just happen to reside outside the state. In other words, it may well be that just as "street money" is a dying tradition in the South, its Midwestern equivalent is dying off as well. Continued...