Properly positioned, Stephanie Herseth can be a valuable commodity in a revitalized product line of a reconstituted Democratic Party. Think of the early 70's, when ABC-Dunhill had Steely Dan making decent money (for those more modest times) but had Three Dog Night upfront and selling millions to keep the stockholders quiet. Herseth is one kind of Democrat we can use, among other kinds we can use in other situations. It was amusing to read the verbal wolf-whistles that sounded forth for this nice-looking upper-class achiever. It's great to have sexy, bright young Dems to offset all the young pro-sex "Libertarian" nonsense that hurt Al Gore so much. But looking for MLK-style courage and vision from a quintessential work-within-the-system type is doomed to disaapointment, particularly from one who labors in the fields of South Dakota. It would be very nice too, and help redress things quite a bit, if she had some real policy positions, but the main thing to remember is that she has no incumbency to stand on, let alone the built-in 6-year buffer that Daschle has. Also, for those of you who didn't grow up in a Religious Right-influenced state, let me tactfully point out that she's an attractive and very functional woman of 33, 34 who's single and, AFAIK, never been married - in a farm state, that's practically eccentric spinsterhood. I couldn't care less about her private life, but given the usual politics in such states and GOP viciousness I bet she has to be careful even with the massive weight of her ultra-elite family behind her. My pragmatic solution to this would be to give her a little money, roughly proportionate to her value to the party but a mere fraction of what a Dean or even Edwards would get. I would also write a message saying that I appreciate the delicacy of her position and hope she can finesse her way out of this trap, but am likely to keep giving more to those who may offer a bigger pay-off of whatever kind. Speaking for myself, I would love to see her aerobicized little ass (think Heathers) sitting in the big House and voting for Nancy Pelosi, but I'm not gonna expect too much beyond that.