Yesterday I described the Iowa Democratic caucus as “a circus of ineptitude, bad planning, ambiguous rules, and deliberate obfuscation of the results.” The Des Moines Register is even more harsh in its call for a full audit of the contest between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in Iowa: Once again the world is laughing at Iowa. Late-night comedians and social media mavens are having a field day with jokes about missing caucusgoers and coin flips. That’s fine. We can take ribbing over our quirky process. But what we can’t stomach is even the whiff of impropriety or error. What happened Monday night at the Democratic caucuses was a debacle, period. Democracy, particularly at the local party level, can be slow, messy and obscure. But the refusal to undergo scrutiny or allow for an appeal reeks of autocracy. For good measure, the editorial is entitled, “Something Smells In the Democratic Party.” The Register’s editors say the Iowa Democratic Party must conduct a complete audit of the results, because the race was so close: “Two-tenths of 1 percent separated Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. A caucus should not be confused with an election, but it’s worth noting that much larger margins trigger automatic recounts in other states.” Also, there