This story achieves something very odd, it agrees with the general thinking in its conclusions, while being quite wrong in many of its specifics. I've read at least four stories on exactly this topic lately, from pretty varied sources. They all agree on the general outline. However, Schmitt does not include Louisiana's Mary Landrieu in his list of the most conservative Democratic senators. Most Democrats I know consider a candidate who ran her last campaign on the boast that she voted with George Bush 74% of the time pretty conservative. He says governor Schwarzenegger of California is governing more like a Democrat than a Republican. As a resident of California and a member of the state Democratic Central Committee, I beg to disagree. Schwarzenegger is copying Bush's borrow and spend philosophy by getting approval for a $15 billion bond measure to bail out the state deficit a few years ago, and proposing to issue another against the state lottery funds that are supposed to go to schools this time. He refuses to raise any taxes--even on yachts and private planes. And is demanding huge cuts in programs for the young, old, disabled, and poor--including cutting school funding that is supposed to be protected by law here. No Democrat I know would back any of this. A California congressman whose campaign I worked on in 2006 is under heavy attach by the GOP this year and is considered quite vulnerable. So I'm not sure where he gets the count of four possible congressional seats up for grabs when I can think of one off in just one state. Last, but not least, Schmitt talks about how the Democratic Party "came back." The last story I read said something similar. I don't know what Democrats Schmitt hangs out with. But the ones I know think we have a ways to go before we can claim to be a functional political party with a mission, a message, and a way to accomplish it. But we're working on it!