No, think Donna Shalala, not Donna Summer.

While catching up on weekend reading with Obama here, Obama there and his campaign seizing the reigns everywhere I wondered what we're in for in Denver besides this big ol' Party crooner with two right feet.

With early tunes of R-E-S-P-E-C-T turning postprimary to A-I-P-A-C, who's minding the turntable in Denver and are Dems headed for a Rocky Mountain High this August or just a nasty Party hangover? After years of abysmal party leadership in DC, is this the Dems last chance for love?

Every party has its backdoor action and political parties are, of course, no exception. Some of the hottest action happens in the Platform Committees, state and national, and its happening now but just how do we get a piece?

In 1992 the South Dakota Democrat Party tossed its plank supporting abortion rights. Antichoice delegates didn't outnumber the prochoice, they simply reneged on a deal cut to protect the plank, leaving women furious and signaling a call to socially conservative Democrat candidates that reproductive rights wouldn't be required campaigning. The result ultimately led to Dem state legislators voting with Republicans for a total abortion ban there in 2006. They'd misread their constituencies, though, and voters smacked back, defeating a ballot measure that would have solidified the new law. Repro rights haven't been put back into that state's party platform and the legislature is still passing antichoice legislation but with 8 of 9 prochoice, Dem women winning their primaries this year in SD and another 10 or so on the general election ballot it looks like some are making an end run around a neutered state party - some sixteen years later. And if that's not trivia enough, guess who was co-chair of the SD party in 1992 - none other than key Obama strategist Steve Hildebrand.

And who can forget 1996? Not because Bill Clinton won but because we lost.

Clinton was looking for his second term as President and had thus far kept Republicans' quest to abolish welfare at bay. But then came the Dems' 1996 Platform Committee:

Welfare was one of the few subjects on which the committee was led to rework the platform. As originally drafted, the platform attacked two earlier Republican-drafted welfare bills, which, although similar to the one that the President has said he will sign, were vetoed by him.

Then, after Mr. Clinton's announcement of support last week, committee officials amended the platform's language over the weekend to reflect his new stance, while ignoring the Republicans who wrote the legislation.

''Now,'' the new language says, ''because of the President's leadership and with the support of a majority of the Democrats in Congress, national welfare reform is going to make work and responsibility the law of the land.''

Clinton's Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala's job became overseer not of providing services but stripping them and at least one of her popular employees at HHS resigned.

With these Party hangovers in mind, and our frustrating lack of control over Senate and House Dems on pressing matters like foreign policy, the Pentagon and burgeoning corporate control, how is our national party platform committee shaping up for 2008? Hard telling. If somebody out there knows exactly when and where its meeting, do tell.

Under the Democratic Party's rules, any person may submit a written statement concerning the platform to the Platform Committee at any time prior to the Committee's meeting. In addition, any person may request permission to testify at a public hearing and/or forum. The Platform Committee's Report is usually considered on the second day (Tuesday) of the Convention.

We know who's heading up the Platform Committee and what the 2004 Dem platform was, but just how to influence this most influencial body seems to be a best guarded secret as no contact info for its members is anywhere on the Dem party website or anywhere on the web. Some states are just finishing state conventions that will send 160 or so delegates to join Howard Dean's appointees at the natl. platform meetings in the next few weeks - maybe they get a secret envelope upon being elected telling them where to go and when and what to do next. The rest of us are left wondering if the party is simply going on without us.

Evangelist Tony Campolo knows the secret handshake by now, I'd bet - he's on the Dem Platform Committee and looking forward to working with the '08 CEO of the Dem Convention, Leah Daughtry.

“The language of the Democratic Party will change,” said Tony Campolo, an evangelical pastor who sits on the convention’s platform committee. Campolo added that the best thing about working with Daughtry “is that you don’t have to explain things to her.”

Appending the language of politics (“exit polls,” “voters,” “big tent”) to the language of religion (“values,” “morals,” “Scripture”) is nothing new for Daughtry, who has made it her job to sort through the babble and come up with broad appeal.

General Ricardo Sanchez is also on the Platform Committee. You remember, he was in charge of Abu Ghraib and the invasion of Iraq before he was, uh, a best-selling author. So is retired General Joseph Hoar.

Whether the Convention in Denver will inform the Presidential candidate's marching orders or simply annoint him with a religious revival may well be up to those who shape the platform.

So far the Platform Committee isn't issuing any general admission tickets to this summer's main event even as things are getting just a little sticky under the big tent.