EDITORIAL DEMOCRATIC WIMPS PARTY LACKS A MESSAGE - AND GUTS.

THE most important issue to emerge from both the Demoratic presidential caucuses in Iowa and this weekend's California State Democratic Convention in San Jose was not who won but what was missing.

There was plenty of rhetoric and GOP-bashing, and many, many snipes at each other for not being Democratic enough - whatever that means these days. But beyond those party politics was very little policy.

Somewhere in the need to best the Republicans at any cost, the Democrats have lost their way, forgotten what they stood for other than winning the next election. Even candidates seem a bit fuzzy on what it is, exactly, that the party stands for anymore.

Voters are starting to notice and that's why Howard Dean initially burst to the front in the polls. He sounded like a candidate who stood for Democratic Party values.

Democrats bitterly blame the Green Party for costing them some elections, most notably the 2000 presidential election in which Green Party candidate Ralph Nader took votes away from Al Gore, helping George W. Bush to win the election.

But they really can't blame anyone but themselves for their failure to inspire. The Greens offered people something they weren't getting elsewhere, an unapologetic statement of what they stand for: more environmental controls on businesses and the populace, higher taxes on the wealthy to help the poor.

There are many who would argue that those are the true ideals of the Democratic Party but have been cast aside in order to appear more moderate to conservative Democrats and independents.

But what does the Democratic Party stand for? It's the great modern political mystery.

What voters want more than anything else is a strong and charismatic leader who can articulate a vision and a value system, not some simpering political hack. Even after the October sacking of Gov. Gray Davis by Arnold Schwarzenegger, the state Democratic Party still doesn't seem to get it.

With the candidates for the 2006 governor's race who have announced so far don't fill us with much hope of a change: Steve Westly, Phil Angelides, Bill Lockyer and John Garamendi - a bevy of bland bureaucrats who even the most steely-eyed would have trouble ID'ing in dark alley. And 2,000 party members at the state convention couldn't even decide whether they're for or against the bipartisan fiscal recovery plan on the March ballot.

The Democrat leadership statewide and nationally must cast aside the mealy mouthed psuedo-policy statements conceived by political consultants and pollsters.

If they stand for soaking the rich for more taxes, they should say so. And let them say how they would go about redistributing the wealth for the betterment of America as a whole.

The trouble with the current Democratic strategy is painfully evident in California where Democrats won control of state government with a moderate agenda and then proceeded to spend the state into near bankruptcy while taking no responsibility for what they did.

They could take a lesson from Ronald Reagan, who told people where he stood and had their support to carry out the Reagan Revolution. Right or wrong, like it or not, Republicans stand for no new taxes, encouraging individual wealth, taking personal responsibility and downsizing government.

Democrats need to offer a clear vision of what they want to do and stick to their message. It would move our political debate forward and give voters a real choice instead of the Tweedledee, Tweedledum doubletalk we're getting today.