...that Wallner is a member of a species, native to (if increasingly endangered in) certain precincts of New York City and San Francisco: The Liberal Who Knows Better Than You. They are considered awful crashing bores even here.

As far as the south is concerned, I still maintain, and always will, that it is perfectly winnable for us. To do that, however, we need to stop deluding ourselves that liberal Northeastern Senators - cough, Hillary cough, Kerry cough - have much appeal there. With candidates who speak the language of the voters - Jim Webb, say - we win, and can win anywhere. Also, as MyDD recently laid out, the South is friendlier to Democrats than other parts of the country where we've done better.

And above all, it's party policy - cf. 50-state strategy - to compete everywhere. Wallner may not like that, or maybe he does, but that doesn't matter, because that's what we're going to do.