The Gift that Keeps on Giving

After last November's elections, the Democrats began to wonder what they needed to do to reconnect with "red state" America. Did they need to get religion? Did they need to start supporting the military? Did they need to become country music fans or start following NASCAR?

Well, whatever it is they need to do to, I don't think this is the answer.

Democrats elected Howard Dean chairman of their national party on Saturday, casting their lot with a skilled fund-raiser and organizer whose sometimes caustic, blunt comments can lead to controversy.

If what they want is a caustic fund-raiser, they've got it. But they had a whole bunch of caustic fund-raisers in 2004. John Kerry even had a huge surplus when the election was over. But fund-raising won't win the White House.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, not always a Dean supporter, said Friday, "He has used the power of technology, the force of his personality and the depth of his ideals to bring new people into the party."

She's right. A lot of new people were brought into the party. A lot of MoveOns and Michael Moores and other angry lefties that drove the moderate middle right into the arms of the Republicans.

Keep it up, Dems.