And they're off.
On Monday, two days before today's beginning of the legislative session, more than 100 Republican lawmakers sought the public spotlight by calling for the firing of a University of Missouri-Columbia teacher. Their Monday news release also provided copies of two letters - one from senators, the other from representatives - dated Dec. 18.
Lawmakers have every right to express their views, singly or jointly.
But the timing and motivation of the announcement of their letters to university officials raises some questions.
Although legislators may request action by university curators and administrators - who were addressed in the letter - lawmakers have no authority to fire any employee of the state university system; it is constitutionally independent.
But lawmakers do have authority over budget matters, including the school's budget, which gives their request more gravity than most.
The news release accompanying the text of the letter called for "the immediate firing of Assistant Professor Melissa Click."
Click, our readers may recall, was captured on videotape during a Nov. 9 student protest on campus. The video by MU junior Mark Shierbecker shows Click calling for "some muscle" to remove him from the protest site.
The GOP lawmakers wrote in the letter: "It should be evident that these actions are inappropriate, illegal and unacceptable for a faculty member of the University of Missouri."
We don't disagree.
But if Click's actions were criminal and egregious, why did lawmakers wait nearly a month to publicize the call for her dismissal?
The news release accompanying the letters listed contacts as state Rep. Caleb Jones, R-Columbia, and state Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, who, coincidentally, now is involved in a contested GOP primary in the race for attorney general.
A cynic might characterize the letters as heavy-handed political grandstanding in an election year.
Whatever the intent, the "call for immediate termination" in the news release is - more correctly - a request for action publicized nearly two months after the episode occurred.
In this election year and throughout the legislative session, expect a spike in political posturing.