Democrats: Shut Up and Just Do It

A few weeks ago, I decided to line my birdcage with only articles about how the Democratic Party is clueless, lost and desperate. Suffice to say, Polly has had lots of paper to crap on.

Ok, I don't have a bird or a birdcage. But if I did....I'd be in good shape. At a time that Democrats are the only thing standing between the country and a group of loons who want to put a Dubai-owned company in charge of operation of our major ports; who want to spy on us and tape our phone calls (especially if we are one of those scary pacifist Quaker people); who aggressively have argued for their right to torture people; who are determined to run us into fiscal ruin while making their cabal of friends richer; who simply are incompetent in dealing with keeping us safe, from Katrina to a terrorist attack; who are still trying to sell us a war that has gone from being a disaster to a catastrophe thanks mostly to their incompetence; and who are determined to do whatever they can to ensure that our air is unbreathable and our water is undrinkable, what do you think the media need to talk about? How lost the DEMOCRATS are!

Ah, the liberal media. Always looking out for the Democratic Party.

Yesterday, in the New York Times, it was: For Democrats, Many Verses, but No Chorus.

In the Washington Post today, it's Democrats Struggle To Seize Opportunity.

In February it was, Some Democrats Are Sensing Missed Opportunities.

I'm certainly not here to tell you that the Democratic Party is a well oiled machine. You only have to read the Washington Post article to realize that at a minimum they need to stop talking to reporters about all the sausage making. Until you have a plan; best to keep the process to yourself. And frankly, even after you have a plan, you don't really need to broadcast it to the world. Stop talking about it and just do it. Figure out the big themes to campaign on; communicate them to the candidates; and start campaigning. Democrats need to stop running for the Mr. or Mrs. Popularity award at the Washington Post or New York Times and just do the work. And the leadership needs to realize that many rank and file Democrats find the articles where the leadership wrings their hands about how we don't have a strategy demoralizing at best and rage inducing at worst.

Columnist E.J. Dionne makes the point today in WaPo that all of this hand-wringing is based on a false premise that oppositions win midterm elections by offering a clear program, such as the Republicans' 1994 Contract With America. Dionne says former representative Vin Weber and Tony Blankley, who were both intimately involved in the 1994 takeover of Congress, insist that it was disaffection with Bill Clinton, not the contract, that created the Republicans' opportunity -- something Bob Dole said at the time. That's not to say Dems don't need a plan, but does anyone else feel like maybe there is a bit of overthinking going on here?
 
So, how is this for a plan: the Democratic leadership puts their heads together; comes up with a strategy and rather than having every step of it chronicled by one (or more) of the big newspapers, takes a page from Nike and Just Does It.