A meeting of the Democratic Leadership Council on Monday cast harsh light on the current crisis within the Democratic Party.

It has at least four problems. One is that it lost the 2004 elections badly. The second is that its primary support organization, the labor movement, has just split. The third is that it has no obvious presidential candidate for 2008 and isn't showing much flair in trying to find one. The fourth is that, even though the Republicans don't have a presidential candidate yet either, they still present a relatively smooth phalanx in the field, based largely on their control of the White House and Congress.

In the 2004 elections, the Republican margin of victory wasn't that great, but there is no question but that they won. They are already gearing up for the 2006 Congressional elections while the Democrats remain relatively rudderless.

The 2004 elections put Sen. John Kerry clearly in the category of "let's don't do that again," even if he acts like he doesn't know it. Forgetful party faithful nostalgic for former President Bill Clinton's success in the 1990s are looking wistfully at New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, apparently mindless of her continuing high "hate" quotient. It would be wise of them not to imagine that she can be re-done by simple shifts of position.

The party national committee chairman, former Gov. Howard Dean, brings a lot of energy to resuscitating the party's fortunes. At the same time Dr. Dean came out of the 2004 campaign with major political damage and should not be thought of as the party's candidate in 2008.

There will be moaning and gnashing of teeth over the implications for the Democratic Party of organized labor's recent internecine clashes. We would comment that if a healthier American union movement emerges from the smoke of the battlefield, it will be one better able to support Democratic candidates, if -- if -- its candidates and positions are clearly identifiable as favorable to the interests of labor's constituents. If the Democratic Party shouldn't have taken labor for granted before the recent divisions in the movement, it should do so even less now.

The fourth problem for the Democrats is, of course, their first problem -- the Republicans. Even though the GOP is getting plenty of scratches on its paint through the Karl Rove saga, the growing unpopularity of the war, the wearing off of the Teflon that has protected them from paying the price for their "the rich -- first, last, and always" policies, they still have control of the White House and both houses of Congress, the equivalent of holding three aces and drawing for a fourth in the judiciary.

What is there to do for the Democrats? Stop looking at old favorites; remember Mr. Clinton and look among the governors, particularly the Southern governors. Draw blood on the Republicans by pointing clearly at some of their most outrageous actions. Can anyone believe, for example, that the new energy bill gives fat new breaks to the oil companies, those Bush administration pals who are systematically emptying our wallets into their pockets at the gas pump?

We would give equally apt advice to the Republicans if they were in the mess the Democrats are in: this page believes firmly that a strong, balanced two-party system is the essence of healthy American government. It's just that it's the Democrats who are currently acting as if their next critical test -- the November 2006 elections -- were not just around the corner.