NPR featured two interesting interviews yesterday and today. First was Dick Armey, with whom I disagree politically on just about every issue. The thing is, he was reasonable and clear-eyed, and I agree with his assessment of the Republican party. They will lose the House and the Senate, because they have wasted the last 6 years. I may not agree with his plan for Social Security reform, but I agree with him that it needs reform. But the Republicans have concentrated solely on supporting the President, right or wrong, and trying to maintain their political majority.

Which brings us to today's interview with Rep. Rahm Emanuel. His manner could not have been more different from Armey's. He was basically combative and desperately trying to keep the interview "on message" - the message being simply "vote for us because we're not them".

Now is the time for the Democrats to seize an opportunity. Nobody's happy with the current state of the war or our muddled domestic policy (these days, the Republicans are the ones creating and supporting a massive, centralized, expensive government agency). The Democrats don't have to harp on those issues; they've already "won" the argument simply by being an alternative.

What they need to do is set out some clear policy goals and articulate them to the voting public. The next Presidential election should be a shoo-in, but the last one also should have been. If they fall into the same morass that the Republican-controlled Congress has - simply trying to establish and maintain party control as an end in itself - then our country will be no different.