Those Disorganized Dems

In case you were wondering where some pundits get their views, Washington Post columnist Harold Meyerson provided a clue yesterday: from his 92-year-old mother.

Her shopping list one day said, "Coca-Cola." And then: "Impeach Bush." Underlined. (Meyerson doesn't favor impeachment, but you get my drift.)

In recent days, some new conventional wisdom has been hardening like ready-mix cement. To wit, Bush is in trouble, the Republicans are in trouble, Bush is in trouble with Republicans, and the litany of Iraq plus Katrina plus ports plus Miers plus eavesdropping puts the GOP in grave danger in 2006. But . . . the Democrats may be too disorganized to take advantage, thus fumbling away any chance to retake the House.

Now I'm awfully wary of any predictions made in March of an election year. And it's also hard for the opposition party to speak with one voice--or any voice, considering that Bush is on cable every day and Reid and Pelosi rarely--when it doesn't control so much as a hot-dog stand in Washington.

There is no question that President Bush's standing has significantly eroded, as the GOP revolt on the ports deal makes abundantly clear. It's also true that he's not on the ballot in November, and most incumbents win reelection these days, regardless of what the polls say about the mood of the country.

Yet it is also unclear what the Democrats stand for beyond opposition to Bush. The public thinks the president has messed up in Iraq but doesn't trust the Dems to find a solution either. It's too soon to know how this plays out in the midterms.

As for the emerging wisdom I referred to, here's Adam Nagourney in the New York Times :

"From Arizona to Pennsylvania, from Colorado to Connecticut, Democratic candidates for Congress are reading from a stack of different scripts these days...

"These scattershot messages reflect what officials in both parties say are vulnerabilities among Republicans on Capitol Hill, as well as President Bush's weakened political condition in this election year.

"But they also reflect splits within the party about what it means to be a Democrat -- and what a winning Democratic formula will be -- after years in which conservative ideas have dominated the national policy debate and helped win elections."

Now before I recount the WashPost version of that story, here's what the blog Supreme Irony had to say about it:

"The Washington Post writes yet another hit piece on Democrats. This time focusing on message planning: