Democrats In Trouble: In Maryland, they're getting awfully old for the race . . .

Washington Post looks at the 'Old Democratic Guard' in Maryland. How ironic that it is the DEMs who are the old white folks running the show whereas the Republicans are coming up with the youth, and the diversity...at least in Maryland. But then just take a look at the President's cabinet and you'll see how well the Republicans are doing nationally with diversity.//JW sends.

When the Mary- land Democrats gathered inside a charmless Green- belt ballroom for their annual fall fundraiser in September, they heard speeches from, among others, U.S. Sens. Paul S. Sarbanes and Barbara A. Mikulski, Reps. Steny H. Hoyer and Benjamin L. Cardin, and state Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. The average age of this quintet: 67.6. The average of their tenure in elective office: 38.6 years.

Two of the party's most senior officials -- 83-year-old Comptroller William Donald Schaefer (an officeholder since the mid-1950s) and 61-year-old state Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (17 years as Senate leader, 33 in the General Assembly overall) -- did not show up at the fundraiser, but both continue to cast long shadows over the political discourse in Maryland. And Free State Democrats wonder why they are unable to generate excitement these days. Nothing is wrong with senior service per se. The history books are full of venerable and venerated statesmen.

It just seems that with Maryland's Democrats, well-seasoned is about all you get. And as they set their sights on knocking off Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. in 2006, the implications for the state's Democratic Party are potentially disastrous.