WASHINGTON — Liberal powerhouse MoveOn has a message for the “professional election losers” who run the Democratic Party: “We bought it, we own it, we’re going to take it back.”

A scathing e-mail from the head of MoveOn’s political action committee to the group’s supporters yesterday targets outgoing Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe as a tool of corporate donors who alienated both traditional and progressive Democrats.

“For years, the party has been led by elite Washington insiders who are closer to corporate lobbyists than they are to the Democratic base,” said the e-mail from MoveOn PAC’s Eli Pariser. “But we can’t afford four more years of leadership by a consulting class of professional election losers.”

I haven’t had much to say about politics since the election, because it seemed like even with all the excitement and grass-roots organizing by MoveOn.org and the fun I had listening to Al Franken and Air America Radio, I was totally deflated and depressed by the fact we got our asses handed to us.

I said then that the Democratic Party needed to start working in the hinterlands – the light and deep purple counties – and outside the Beltway.

If the Dems tap Howard Dean to run the party, I think they could get some people fired up and motivated to work – not just on “party” projects but on solidly designed, needed local social programs that benefit people.

Also, they need to counter the the religious right – which turns out to be a surprisingly small number of very vocal people – with a movement starting on the religious left, which could be a hell of a lot of people.

I could get involved if they made it a worthy enough cause, with a lot less of the “power elite” Beltway/East Coast vibe. I want to know more about why Dean inspired so many people to work so hard. If he were leading the party, I might be inspired, too.