Who is laughing now?

Seventy-five years ago, humorist Will Rogers got laughs by saying, "I'm not a member of any organized political party; I'm a Democrat."
The same could be said today by any Democrat in the United States -- and, especially, in Ohio. But the only ones who would be laughing are Republicans.
Consider the recent developments in Ohio, a purple state based on results in the 2004 presidential election, and a state in which Democrats should have been gearing up to make congressional gains.
In the 6th Congressional District, the Democratic incumbent, Ted Strickland, was seen as the party's strongest candidate for governor. Obviously, the party would need a strong candidate to hold the seat. So what happened? State Sen. Charles A. Wilson Jr., the Democratic candidate with the most political experience and strongest name recognition in the area, failed to get the 50 signatures needed to get on the ballot. Now he'll spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a write-in campaign to win a nomination that was virtually his for the asking.
One up, one down
The party managed to get U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown, who has a long record of successful elections and proven name recognition, to challenge incumbent Mike DeWine for Ohio's U.S. Senate seat. But the party had to pressure Paul Hackett to drop out of the Senate primary, and then it couldn't convince Hackett to run where he was needed most, for the suburban Cincinnati seat held by Jean Schmidt. Hackett, an Iraq War veteran nearly beat Schmidt in a special election last year in Ohio's 2nd District, before she made a fool of herself by lecturing U.S. Rep. John Murtha of Johnstown, Pa., a Marine Corps veteran of Korea and Vietnam, on what constitutes cowardice in battle.
And the Democrats couldn't attract a strong candidate to challenge U.S. Rep. Bob Ney, R-18th, who may or may not be vulnerable this fall, based on how much is learned about his connections to the crooked lobbyist, Jack Abramoff. At the very least, Ney's golfing trip to Scotland on Abramoff's tab should have provided a campaign issue.
All of this is disconcerting because this nation functions best when it has a strong two-party system. More than a decade of one-party rule in Columbus has not served Ohio well. In Washington, one-party rule means that questions that should be raised by congressional committees about domestic and international priorities are not being asked.
But for a party to function as the loyal opposition, it has to stand for something demonstrable, and it has to be able to get strong candidates on the ballot. As of now, the Democrats have two strikes against them.