| Things seem to be looking up for the Dems, but don’t ask me for more contributions just yet. Sure, the 2005 elections went our way. And Bush’s Potemkin Presidency is at last collapsing around his feet, and the K Street greed machine that hijacked the Republican Party is being exposed for all to see. Iraq, Plamegate, Rove, Libby, Frist, DeLay, Duke Cunningham, Safavian, Brownie, a series of no-bid billions to administration-friendly corporations, cronyism, billowing deficits, "catapulted" propaganda and a cavalcade of lies stretching back to the first days of Bush’s administration have become sufficiently transparent that even the mainstream press and true conservatives have stopped functioning as cheerleaders and started questioning the emperor’s clothing. As for the rest of us, the sheer magnitude of their combined malfeasance has induced a collective national gag-reflex, and people everywhere are desperately looking for real leadership and real leaders. My problem is, that faced with this overwhelming opportunity, the Democrats – in true Party tradition – are struggling to find a way to fail. Hillary is aggressively straddling the fence and in danger of splitting herself in two. Joe Biden isn’t far behind. If either of them gets the nomination, prepare yourself for the kind of "I voted for but against" stuff that sank Kerry. "Call it "Flip-Flop Redux Campaign 2008 – The Sequel." Meanwhile, Mr. Kerry is sounding a lot like George Costanza trying to deliver the perfect come-back line long after being dissed. Messrs. Pelosi and Reid are enamored with frames and developing a "platform." But a frame without art is just a frame; and a platform without a base is just a teeter-totter. So far, the only thing to leak out of Democratic strategy deliberations has been the soporific slogan, "We can do better." Whew. Wake me when it’s over. Kudos to Senator Reid for showing some balls at long last. It’s a start. But our Party strategists are once again advising that we pander to polls and move yet a little further to the "center." For example, William Galston and Elaine Kamarck’s "The Politics of Polarization" is a paean to poll-chasing centrism, complete with charts, graphs and figures to prove their point. Even the normally astute Carville can’t seem to grasp the political opportunity created by a President who knowingly lied the country into a war, then blew the execution of that war. Of course, the only possible explanation for the performance of Democratic Strategists over the past few elections is that they’ve all been covertly working for Rove the whole time. | 
