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An interesting review of Crashing the Gate, by Jerome Armstrong (founder of MyDD) and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga (founder of Daily KOS), calls the book "at once awesomely inspiring and profoundly depressing." Sounds like the Democrats would agree with the depressing part.

The book analyzes the success of Republican political strategists and the failure of their Democratic counterparts. But what struck me about the review is the exposure of fracture lines in the Democratic party that run much deeper than mere strategic incompetence:

"In April 2005, about a hundred progressive leaders descended on Monterey, California, to extract lessons from the 2004 election debacle while finding ways for progressives to move forward," [Armstrong and Moulitsas] write. At the beginning of one session about collaboration, a participant complained, "This isn't speaking to my issue. When are we going to talk about my issue?" [they] write, "That set off an avalanche of copy cat complaints — 'What about my issue?' — from all corners of the room."

That is what's been wrong with the Democratic party for decades.