party favors

We've avoided the usual TV and print pundits because of the inevitable trashing Kerry and his campaign would be taking. Who needs the noise. But it is a somewhat dangerous time for Democrats, and we see it in the ascension of Harry Reid to Senate leader. Reid is a conservative Mormon from Utah, and he's the guy who the Dems will depend on to lead the inevitable fight against Bush Supreme Court nominees. He's not pro-choice. He's a legislative technician and a party loyalist, and that seems to be his perceived value, apart from sheer seniority.

At the same time, John Kerry himself is surprising some observers by not moving to France, and not even taking a day off. He convened congressional "party leaders" for a strategy session. He has to keep the elected Democrats from falling into their usual stupor, quaking that if they don't support Bush they won't get reelected. Apart from the demonstrable fact that unless Tom DeLay happens to redistrict their states, incumbency rules for both parties, there is the matter of backbone and the reality that while soul-searching is always a good thing, and improvement in communicating values and positions and what's at stake would be nice, the task is to keep faith with the base and expand from there. People didn't follow Kerry at considerable cost to themselves because they liked his neckties.

Kerry is said to be backing Tom Vilsack of Iowa for DNC chair, while there is considerable support for Howard Dean. While we'd like to see Dean as a prominent Democratic voice in the next several years, the job would limit his political choices. We're not crazy about Vilsack, so somebody associated with Dean and his Internet campaign could be better. The DNC is mostly fundraising organization at this point, but maybe somebody with creative ideas and a public face can transform the job. That would be Dean most probably.

We're not insider enough to say---we don't really know much about Vilsack except that he seems dull---but a Dem swing to the right would be lethal. We aren't talking about politics as usual. There is way too much at stake. There may be nothing anyone can do but voice their opposition strongly, to halt America's slide into one disaster after another, taking the western world with it. But we've got to do at least that much.