Frank Lautenberg said he was really astonished that so few people had voted Democratic. Others' astonishment is of a different order -- why did so many people in New Jersey vote for Mr. Lautenberg?

But these are curiosities, in a scene absolutely dominated by the personal success of George W. Bush, who has scored what goes by the name of a historical upset, it being the convention for midterm elections to express a little second-thinking about the party of the presidential incumbent.

The new senator from New Jersey was quoted as saying that now Mr. Bush has to produce. We need leadership, he says, in the matter of foreign and domestic policy. Tony Dolan, sometime speechwriter for President Reagan, suggests that the need for leadership is, to be sure, a need for George W. Bush to spread his wings even further, but a need also for the Democrats to acknowledge what he calls their "ghettoization" of their party. He means that the Democrats' inventory of concerns is now so closely bounded by a concern for lobbies, the Dems might cease to attract universal attention.

Already it is suggested that Rep. Richard Gephardt should step down as minority leader. And if you can believe it, Gary Hart, of days gone by, has suggested that he step up, from the discredited presidential candidate of 1988, to a born-again candidate for 2004. Donna Rice, the consort who tripped up his campaign in '88, has now become a resolutely born-again crusader against pornography.

Mr. Hart said on Election Day that the quarrel he had in 1988 was with the press, not with the people. He means that the press ought not to have pursued his night life, and means also, one gathers, that the American people no longer care about candidates' night lives, as Bill Clinton could affirm.

But, Sen. Lautenberg says, President Bush has to prove himself because the economy is in a terrible mess. He does not adduce from any of the public-policy positions taken by the Democratic leadership what it is that ought to be done. The Democrats have never been strong on this point. Their strength is in redistribution. One class of Americans produce the goods, the Democrats serving as arbiters on who should have the income from that production.