David Schultz columnist

"We won! We won! Do you believe in miracles? Yes!"

If you talked to a reveler at any of the Democratic election night parties on Nov. 8, you'd probably hear something along these lines, give or take a few degrees of enthusiasm.

The elections of 2005 were the Democratic Party's version of an emphatic slam-dunk right in the face of the GOP. But Democrats shouldn't celebrate just yet because they've still got a long way to go before they can truly celebrate.

Make no mistake, though; the Democratic Party truly dominated the elections in almost every way, shape and form.

In New Jersey, Jon Corzine handily won a hotly contested gubernatorial race. In Virginia, Tim Kaine seized the governorship despite, or perhaps because of, some campaigning by President Bush on behalf of his opponent.

In California, all four of the ballot propositions backed by Arnold Schwarzenegger were soundly defeated in an ill-advised special election called by "the Governator" himself.

Locally, Tucson also followed suit and took a jump to the left. Karen Uhlich and Nina Trasoff both thoroughly spanked the Republican incumbents on the City Council by shockingly large margins.

Undoubtedly, these Democratic electoral gains have more to do with the sorry state of their opposition than anything else. In case you've been living under a rock for the past three months, the Grand Old Party's not looking so grand anymore.

From the Tom DeLay indictment, to the bungling of Hurricane Katrina, to the Harriet Miers debacle, to the I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby indictment and finally to the ever-festering war in Iraq, the hits just keep on coming for the Republican Party. And each of these Republican maladies translated into solid gold at the polls for the Democrats.

So should Democrats be dancing in the streets right now?

Not quite.

Between now and 2008 the fortunes of America's two major parties will fluctuate more crazily than Anna Nicole Smith's figure after a frenzied TrimSpa binge.

Next year there will be congressional elections that will be tremendously more important than last week's exercise in democracy. Then two years after that comes la enchilada muy grande: the presidential election.

If history is any indicator, between now and 2008 the fortunes of America's two major parties will fluctuate more crazily than Anna Nicole Smith's figure after a frenzied TrimSpa binge.

Take, for example, the scenario after the elections of 1995.

Republicans were still intoxicated off of their "revolutionary" landslide victory of the previous year and Newt Gingrich, then-Speaker of the House, was looking like the bastard child of Ronald Reagan and Machiavelli.

In 1995, there was no reason to believe that Bill Clinton wouldn't be cast off to live in the outhouse of politics after the presidential election of 1996.

Then 1996 actually happened: Republicans shut down the government. Gingrich whines about not getting a good seat on Air Force One. Bob Dole unintentionally falls off the platform and into the crowd at a campaign rally.

That was all she wrote. Clinton was here to stay and Republicans were left feeling a lot like the UCLA football team as it was leaving Tucson two weeks ago.

And if politics is really just a noncontact sport, then the only thing the Democrats did with their election sweep is win the first quarter. As any true sports fan knows, you don't go dumping buckets of Gatorade onto each other after the first quarter.

The Democratic Party needs to calm down and realize that, while they gained a few gubernatorial, mayoral and City Council seats, they really haven't won anything substantial yet.

Furthermore, the ineptitude of the Republican Party was the only reason they were victorious at all. But merely capitalizing on Republican mistakes and misfortunes is not a formula for long-term success.

If Democrats want to keep this momentum going, they should be focusing on their own vision for the country and what they would do if the voters were to give them back the reins of power.

When the Democrats realizes this, they might actually make some inroads into the Republican majority, if not destroy it altogether.

And if that happens, they will have finally earned the right to break out the Miller High Life, crank up the Kool and the Gang, and go nuts.

David Schultz is a senior majoring in political science and philosophy.

He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.