The Tide has turned...

in the last spate of elections, Democrats all across the United States have swept into the local councils of traditionally Republican strongholds. The Democratic party under Howard Dean has been hard at work rebuilding the base

Dean spends two days a week max at the DNC office here, preferring instead to visit state parties. Recently he had lunch with, as he described them, some "very old influential heavy-hitter lobbyists." They gently suggested that he ought to do more time in Washington.

"I can't," he said. "No votes in Washington."

The America of Martin Luther King and Franklin Delano Roosevelt is starting to wake up from a very deep sleep.