Page 2 of 2 <

A Holy-Roller Democrat

Discussion Policy

Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

That deterioration of his party's "brand" provoked Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean to pour tens of millions of dollars into resurrecting the party in the reddest states, including Mississippi. Last year, the DNC hired four full-time staff members on behalf of the Mississippi Democratic Party, which formerly had one. And yet Mississippi's old-guard Democratic county chairmen, like those in other red states, keep grousing that a robust party infrastructure is useless without a top-of-the-ticket candidate whom voters can get excited about.

To hear his campaign tell it, that's where Eaves comes in -- as a gregarious savior, leading flocks to the voting booth while he enthuses about Jesus. If Eaves and similar candidates succeed in opening up red states, their strategy could be the Democrats' ticket to winning back the presidency and a commanding majority in Congress.

But Eaves still has to prove that he can win in a state in which white evangelicals, who make up half the electorate, voted for President Bush over Sen. John F. Kerry by 88 percent to 12. And the party's base still has to decide that the cost of such victories isn't too much to bear.

author@thejesusmachine.com

Dan Gilgoff is a senior editor at U.S. News & World Report and author of "The Jesus Machine: How James Dobson, Focus on the Family, and Evangelical America Are Winning the Culture War."

< 2