Hillary Clinton is telephoning major Democratic political activists in Iowa, inviting some key players in the state to dinner in Washington. Just "exploratory" in nature, you understand - wink, wink. Beth Fouhy of the Associated Press has details:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has begun calling political operatives in Iowa and New Hampshire to discuss her prospects in the 2008 presidential field, her first outreach to operatives in key states with early contests.

The New York Democrat began making calls to New Hampshire activists over the weekend and Iowa Democrats on Monday.

Gordon Fischer, a Des Moines lawyer who formerly chaired the Iowa Democratic Party, said he had gotten a message from Clinton's staff inviting him to dinner in Washington next week.

Read the whole story at the above link. Several of those contacted seem to have a distinct impression that Hilarity! is running. I wonder where they got that idea?

She has a number of options open regarding Iowa. With the popular governor, Tom Vilsack, also in the Presidential race, she could defer to him as a "Favorite Son" candidate and concentrate on New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada, the early primaries with actual delegates at stake. This would be risky, though, because Vilsack has no national base and presumably will have trouble raising money. If Clinton ignored Iowa and Vilsack's campaign faltered even before the caucuses, she would have the unhappy choice of playing catch-up in the state, or conceding it to one of her rivals without a fight.

Her strategy here seems the wisest course: she lines up support, which prevents those activists from signing on with another campaign at the least, and keeps her options open. There is a huge up-side for her in Iowa, too: if she won the state's caucuses against the Governor and people like Kerry and Edwards (who will have been organizing in the state for over five years by the time of the vote), those candidacies will be effectively over before the first primary.

On the national side of the question, her calls to NH and IA are putting her back on top of the buzz. Everyone knows she is a serious player with a real chance of winning the nomination. Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. has enjoyed enough of a media whirl, her advisers no doubt told her.