A Cleansing Election

In Connecticut, the Democratic leadership was furious at MoveOn for sponsoring Ned Lamont when the party had the larger goal of trying to win back the Senate. What do you make of MoveOn's potency now?
Gergen: MoveOn and these other groups have given great energy to the Democrats. But if the Democrats embrace their agenda, the party is going to wind up as a vociferous minority. Charles Schumer, who ran the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, embraced a pragmatism about how to win. MoveOn was very responsible during the election about accepting that as an electoral strategy. They were willing to say, "OK, we're going to support this person even though we don't like everything they stand for." But now that they've won, the question is, will MoveOn be willing to embrace that same pragmatism as a governing strategy? Or are they going to say, "No, no, you have to adopt our agenda"?

In the West, every Rocky Mountain state except Nevada, Utah and Idaho now has a Democratic governor. What does that mean?
Hart: California, Oregon and Washington have been in the Democratic column for years. What we learned in this election is that the ability to be competitive now extends to the Rocky Mountains -- to Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Montana. The important issues in the region are clearly environmentalism, personal freedom and fiscal conservatism. The Republicans moved away from that base, opening up the advantage to the Democrats.

Gergen: The other thing is that the Northeast has become solidly Democratic. The Republicans are down to one member of Congress in New England. Christopher Shays in Connecticut is the last guy standing. Everybody else got wiped out.

Hart: The Northeast is now the Ninth Ward of New Orleans: It's underwater for the Republicans.

The Southern strategy that Republicans have pursued since Nixon also seems to be eroding. Can Democrats just write off the region in 2008 and still win?
Gergen: Some people are suggesting that, but I think it's a terrible mistake. When you begin thinking in those terms, you effectively write off the same electorate you find elsewhere in the country. It's much better to look for a candidate who's competitive in the South. Look at Virginia: If the Democrats can get a candidate who can win there, it changes the whole electoral map.

To me, this election had more vindication for Howard Dean's fifty-state strategy than I ever imagined. He deserves some credit for thinking, "We ought to be building from the grass roots up, and we've got a shot at doing this." A couple of those Indiana races that they won, he put organizers out there early, at a time when it seemed crazy to think you could ever take those seats.

Looking ahead, what would you tell Democrats to do -- or not do -- to expand on this victory?
Hart: The challenge for the Democrats is which playbook they should follow. One model is 1960, when the LBJ Senate passed legislation that gave John Kennedy a platform to run on. The other model is the Newt Gingrich model of 1994, when Republicans essentially said, "This is the time to pay the Democrats back for all their excesses." The challenge for Democrats is to not misread their mandate, which comes back to central issues: health care, minimum wage, education, the environment.

Gergen: I agree with that absolutely. This is the time to set the table for 2008. They ought to be coming forward with a series of domestic initiatives. If the president signs them, he gives Democrats a victory on substance. If the president blocks them, he gives Democrats an issue for 2008.

Democrats should also use the statehouses they now control as laboratories. Eliot Spitzer, for example, could do some innovative things in New York that could serve as a model for the national level. They need to pursue long-term Democratic objectives, but with new means, more consistent with the new generation, which doesn't want to get stuck with the old solutions.

On the international side, they're going to be under the microscope on how they deal with Iraq. The public wants them to be a watchdog, but not a Rottweiler, in terms of oversight. Voters don't want a whole series of confrontations over the next two years. They want to find some sensible way out of Iraq. Democrats have got to be willing to work with the administration and not just say, "We've got to leave today." That's going to be very hard for them to do.

The same question regarding the Republicans: What should they be doing now, and what should they avoid?
Gergen: They have to find a way to get independent voters back. The question is, how to do that? Some Republicans think the only way to win is to move to the hard right, back to the Goldwater and Reagan roots, and stay out there on the social agenda -- abortion, gay marriage, things like that. Other Republicans think the way to go is to move back to the middle, to win back the independents who walked away from the party because it became too extreme for them. Republicans are going to have to make a fundamental decision, and right now their voices are pulling in both directions.

Hart: And Democrats couldn't be more delighted with that fight. The way they're headed, the Republicans are taking a page right out of the Democratic playbook -- the circle as a firing squad.