a. The religious focus will have to take its course. When people realize that even passing such bigoted legislation as the Federal Marriage Amendment doesn't create jobs or mean better schools, they may take those values back into to their churches and pragmatically look for effective representation. When we have posted the Ten Commandments in every classroom, yet still have high dropout rates, school violence and teen pregnancy, maybe folks will listen.

b. Democrats in the Bible Belt will have to be able to discuss the Bible better than Republicans. I think most Republicans have been opportunistic in this regard and Democrats could do better. There is plenty of religious support for our values, we have just been too reluctant to enter into the fray. As long as leaders such as Fallwell, Robertson and Bush use the Bible to support their fundamentally anti-working class politics, we will struggle. We cannot ignore this debate, nor can we try to keep it on a non-religious plane. What we must do, however, is reach people where they believe, then work to put religious beliefs back in the home and church where they belong, and out of the public arena.

c. We must confront the failure of most Republicans to do anything once they are elected on "values" based politics, and keep hammering that point.

d. A Democratic challenger in this District can raise enough money to beat Virgil. We raised nearly $500,000 and, with a few more weeks could have probably topped $600,000.

e. Serious discussion about the role of the DCCC and the DPVA in challenger races needs to begin. There will never be much chance to beat Republican incumbents if we don't develop a farm team system. Organizational support for any challenger -- not necessarily funding -- would be invaluable. DPVA should make big effort to capture all the data gathered in a campaign -- even if it means providing common software to candidates. No candidate should have to start from scratch when someone has run previously.

Hard as it is to say, to be right, to stand for principle and inclusiveness, to bring new ideas and energy and to empathize with the electorate, cannot, by themselves, overtake an entrenched incumbent. No Democrat who does not meet these standards should be worthy of being called a Democrat, yet we must look beyond these characteristics for our next candidate. The number of willing and enthusiastic volunteers we had in 2004 shows that our politics are persuasive, but we need to communicate better. We also need to be prepared, as have been the Republicans, to change peoples' long held views. For example, Republicans have been hammering on lawyers and blaming frivolous law suits for everything that tax cuts can't solve. People believe that, even when there is little basis in fact. We can't expect people to believe the contrary without an effort to inform them.

Al Weed (electronic mail, November 4, 2004)