Salvation for Democrats

Is it time for Howard Dean to call in the party's Three Wise Men to build an ark and save the Democrats from a flood of Biblical proportions?

Mixed metaphors seem an apt response to the confusing news that one out of four Florida Democrats is incensed enough over the primary re-vote issue to consider skipping the ballot in November or casting it for McCain.

As today's Sunshine State pols argue bitterly, Dean is way over his head in trying to mediate a solution. One quick fix would be to turn to the party elders--Lee Hamilton, who has studied everything from 9/11 to Iraq; George Mitchell, the savior of major-league baseball from steroid users; and Jimmy Carter, who specializes in guaranteeing the fairness of elections in the Third World.

Older, wiser heads behind the wheel might slow down or stop the partisan bickering that threatens to drive Democrats off a cliff as it did in the unruly 1968 convention. If the party doesn't change direction, the country could be heading for the abyss of another war-loving, economically tone-deaf Republican administration.

The Obama and Clinton campaigns may want to think long and hard about whether there is any salvation for anybody in that.