In the last post, we alluded to how the Democratic election strategy might set up structural problems for their 2008 campaign. The DKos denizens that Harry Ried admits are the essence of the Democratic victory expect legislative and partisan blood. This will bring the Democratic leadership into conflict with any group that opposes socially liberal legislations or Democratic partisanship.

That second group includes Americans who found things like the Starr investigation distasteful. Which was everybody.

The first group is potentially even more problematic for the Democrats. Among those who are opposed to many of the Left's social policies are... many of the new Southern Democrats that make up the the new Democratic majority. These Democrats ran against incumbants this time around, so they didn't have a record that Republicans could stick them to. That trick works exactly once.

Now, the Democratic leadership has a choice. They could fail to pass social reforms, alienating the not-exactly-emotionally-stable DKos Denizens. Or they could whip the Southern Democrats into line and force them to vote for pro-abortion, pro-stem-cell, pro-euthanasia, etc policies - all but guaranteeing that those seats will revert GOP in 2008.

And they still have the problem of how exactly they're going to demonstrate to the nutroots that they're making progress on Iraq. By actually doing something and cutting troop funding? By not doing anything, but by holding hearings and subpoenaing generals to make it look like they're doing something? That'll play well.

Previously: Does Kos Just Get to Make Things Up Now?, Dialogue On the Left, Three Out Of Every Four American Jews Will Vote To Empower These People Today