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If find it amusing that some people feel we still need to have this discussion.

Forget Lieberman-Lamont. Forget Webb. And yes, you can even forget Tester. In fact, to understand why the netroots are central to what happened last night, you shouldn't look at last night at all.

This is why the netroots matter. In 2004, the netroots got behind a long-shot, dark-horse candidate, one who was willing to speak the truth about the war and run an entirely new kind of campaign. He may have lost that battle, but in the end he is going to win the war.

Without a 50 state strategy, the 2006 tsunami would never have happened. The DC establishment thought Dean was insane. The netroots knew he wasn't. Last night proved that he, and more to the point, WE were right.

The Democrats didn't win in all those districts, of course, although they did enjoy several unexpected victories. What Dean and his organizers created, however, was an environment that allowed insurgents and outliers as well as the party's chosen challengers to ride the national wave of revulsion against conservative rule. That enterprise, in turn, surprised and overwhelmed the Republican capacity to respond. Faced with many more viable challenges than anticipated, the Republicans made mistakes in allocating resources -- and were forced to defend candidates in districts that are usually safe.

This is a beginning, not an ending, a first step, not a last. We are retaking and remaking this party from the bottom up, one district and one state at a time. 2006 was only the beginning.

Don't want to believe in us? Fine by me. It never hurts to have people underestimate you...

UPDATE: Apparently some people still don't get it. "Big name Democrats" are apparently working to oust Dean from the DNC. And their reason? They think the 50 state strategy is a failure.

Whoever these "big names" are, they are - to put it politely - certifiably insane. Sure, we already knew that about Carville, so no surprise there. But really... the 50 state strategy hurt the Dems? Are you people high?