Earlier this year, when Montana Republican Party officials caucused well before the June 3 primary election -- picking Mitt Romney, who promptly dropped out of the race -- Democrats were happy to note that the GOP was disenfranchising Republican voters.

Turnabout being fair play, especially in politics, Republicans are now making fun of Democratic superdelegates -- those high party officials and officeholders who can vote for whichever candidate they choose at the national convention -- as being equally disenfranchising. Because neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama is likely to receive enough delegates by the convention, superdelegates could end up picking the Democratic nominee.

Of course, few envisioned the current situation. Superdelegates were expected to be wise old heads who could help prevent the party from being railroaded into nominating some far-out, unelectable candidate.

The idea never was to arbitrarily choose between two proven vote-getters. Still, superdelegates' special status gives Republicans a new sort of ammo this year.

They also gave former President Bill Clinton some fodder for a joke during his Montana visit last week. "It's really disgusting the way we are prostrating ourselves before the superdelegates," Clinton said. "Except for offering to polish (state Democratic chairman Dennis McDonald's) boots and clean his windshield, I have not done anything demeaning to get his vote."

McDonald, like U.S. Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester and Gov. Brian Schweitzer, remains uncommitted. Superdelegates Ed Tinsley and former Sen. John Melcher have declared for Obama, as has Jeanne Lemire Dahlman, a national committeewoman from Montana who announced her decision on Monday. Also on Monday, Margarett Campbell, a state legislator who is vice-chair of the state party, said she was backing Obama ... until she changed her mind, saying that party rules didn't allow her to do so before the primary election.

Is anyone not confused yet? Montana finally got some quality attention from presidential candidates last week, but that doesn't make us any less likely to be left scratching our heads over one of the stranger elections in recent memory.