"Jesus," Kerrey says.

Olson may be a brilliant and capable attorney, but he's a harsh partisan. His nomination is the equivalent of a President Al Gore picking Alan Dershowitz. Olson's most recent foray in the public light was to work his magic before the U.S. Supreme Court before its controversial 5-4 decision that handed Bush the presidency. Perhaps even more controversially, Olson -- one of Kenneth Starr's best friends -- was also one of President Clinton's chief antagonists as head of the "Arkansas Project," the multimillion-dollar investigation into Clinton's pre-White House days as funneled through American Spectator magazine. He represented Whitewater witness David Hale, and coached Paula Jones' attorneys before their Supreme Court argument.

"He shouldn't be confirmed," Kerrey says. "If this guy had been funded by the American Socialist party during the Reagan administration, and had attacked Ronald Reagan over and over and then a Democrat nominated him, the Republicans wouldn't vote to confirm him."

But Kerrey's voice is probably the only one you hear criticizing the Olson nomination.

Some would use this as further evidence that the Democratic Party has gone AWOL. The perfect symbol for the Democratic Party's impotence, they say, is the fevered, passive hope -- what its members whisper about away from the TV cameras and NPR microphones -- that the recently hospitalized Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., 98, might soon die, and be replaced with a Democratic senator by South Carolina's Democratic governor.

"Obviously, it's a hard time for Democrats," says former Clinton domestic policy director Bruce Reed, who just became president of the Democratic Leadership Council. "We didn't win the election and we don't control the agenda. It remains to be seen how good we are at defense now that we've lost our goalie."

"Bush is acting like he won 60 percent of the vote and 340 electoral votes on top of it," Kerrey says. "He's pressing way beyond his mandate."

But who's to stand in his way? "They're trying to get their sea legs," Kerrey says of his former colleagues.

To many liberals, the Democrats just seem like wimps -- "Why the Democrats Are Getting Rolled," reads the headline of the New Republic. The frontline reports are grim: A recent New York Times story reports: "Democrats said they felt all the more leaderless because of the lingering strains between Mr. Gore and Mr. Clinton, which have been heightened by the controversies over gifts and pardons." The analyses are rude: "It's been painful to watch the Democrats roll over and play dead for George W. Bush since his coronation," reads an op-ed in the Christian Science Monitor.

But while it's clear that Bush's first four weeks as president have gone fairly well (as first four weeks usually do), the notion that Bush is romping and the Democrats -- now without control of the House, Senate or White House for the first time since Eisenhower -- are taking a dive is a rather simplistic analysis and drives Democrats on the Hill crazy.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., is clearly irritated at any notion that Democrats are "getting rolled." While media speculation had scores of Democrats jumping ship in droves, as in 1981, to support the Republican president's tax cut, Frank says: "How many Democrats are in favor of his tax plan? One: Zell Miller, the accidental senator." (Former Georgia Gov. Miller had retired from public life until Democrats begged him to serve as the replacement for the late Sen. Paul Coverdell, a Republican, who died last year.)

Frank begins rattling off a list: "Ashcroft was the bitterest fight, the most substantial opposition to block a Cabinet nomination since John Tower. ... Dick Gephardt is in the middle of a big fight over election reform in the House." Also, Bush is and will increasingly be on the defensive over the patients bill of rights and campaign finance reform, Frank assures.

"This whole notion that we're not fighting him is journalistic bullshit," Frank says.

Instead, what Democrats say is: We're biding our time for the big battles -- like, say, when Bush announces his budget next week.

But until then, they are clearly fumbling. The real question for the Democrats: What's their choice?

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