Moseley Braun remains concerned that her party has not found the message to coalesce voters. "There is not a unifying principle that we could come up with, an alternative on Social Security, an alternative on healthcare, an alternative on even on pullout in Iraq," she said. "That has not gelled."

"We are working on the next step, to crystallize the message and into an even shorter message about who we are as Democrats, to brand us in that way," Pelosi said.

Back in New Mexico, Richardson explains that Democrats, above all, must work on this message. "We cannot just be a Washington-based party." Currently the chairman of the Democratic Governors' Association, Richardson insists he is not running for the presidency in 2008. Instead, he is focusing on the two gubernatorial races this year, as well as the staggering 36 contests in 2006.

History gives Richardson reason for optimism. The massive Republican congressional gains of 1994 were accompanied by an equally impressive 10 new Republican governorships.

"In 2005, we are really confident of winning New Jersey, and Virginia could go either way. Our objective in 2006 is to retain as many governors as we can and maybe add two or three," Richardson said. "But only if we focus on what our values are, as opposed to just being attack dogs, will we be better off, because the public is already disenchanted with the president and the Republican agenda."

It is this very disenchantment that Shrum believes places Democrats in a position to make some gains in 2006, if not large ones. Shrum insists Democrats will gain simply if Republicans stay their course. He believes that the steadfast image of Bush, which served him well in the presidential election -- a quality Democrats saw as intransigence -- will now serve to undermine the Bush administration and the Republican Congress. "Their only answer to failure is more of the same," Shrum said.

Today, the longtime Democratic strategist who has seen his candidates lose more presidential elections than he likes to recall, speculates that after a decade being the minority the Democratic Party has found its footing. But he is quick to add that although Democrats are united legislatively, the party's midterm candidates will not all hold the same positions on social policy, the war in Iraq and other issues. But to Shrum, that's par for a more pluralistic party.

"You never have a single-minded approach unless you have a president, or during a general election campaign when you have a nominee that people think has a chance to win. They all tend to sort of fall in line and not dissent from what that nominee is saying," Shrum said. "To say 'Democrats,' as though they were a single corporate entity directed by a centralized force, just isn't the case. The biggest uniter of Democrats, frankly, is George W. Bush."

Of course, that is the persistent irony of politics today. While Bush finds it harder to rally the nation behind his domestic agenda, his leadership continues to unite his opposition, as Republicans united against Bill Clinton a decade ago. And as long as the public disapproves of how the Republicans are steering the country, Shrum sees history on the Democrats' side.

"Every election where the out party gains in the midterm, and they usually gain, but where they gain in a substantial amount, is because there is something going on that people are profoundly dissatisfied with," he said.

Whether trouble for Bush will translate into Democratic success remains to be seen. But Shrum asserts that if Democrats are to come close to pulling off what the GOP did in 1994, "we have to recruit. We have to organize. We have to stand for something -- there have to be candidates who stand for something and convey that."

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