Meet the new boss …

Debacle after debacle on the gridiron became too much for Dallas Cowboy owner Jerry Jones to tolerate. On Monday, he fired sad-sack head coach Wade Phillips after a 45-7 shellacking at the hands of Green Bay left the team an embarrassing 1-7.

Too bad for Mr. Phillips he doesn't work for House Democrats, who apparently have a higher tolerance for leaders who march the rank-and-file over a cliff.

Consider Nancy Pelosi.

Ms. Pelosi, a California Democrat, spent the past two years as speaker of the House pushing perhaps the most hyperliberal agenda since the height of the New Deal. Her party was rewarded with the worst political rout in 72 years, losing its House majority last Tuesday when Republicans gained more than 60 seats.

In most any other organization, the architect of such historic failure might quietly slink out the back door. Not Ms. Pelosi. On Friday, she announced that she'll seek to maintain her party leadership role as a member of the minority.

So far, despite grumblings from the few moderate House Democrats left standing, nobody has come forth to challenge her. She needs only a majority to maintain control of the caucus.

Ms. Pelosi is a darling of the party's active "progressive" (read: socialist) wing. The leftists at MoveOn.org were particularly pleased with Ms. Pelosi's announcement.

"After Tuesday's elections, some corporate Democrats are taking the wrong lesson -- saying that Democrats should be less progressive and more like the Republicans," the group said in a letter to its members. "And they're pushing Speaker Pelosi to step down. This would be a terrible loss for progressives, and for the country."

In fact, the idea that House Democrats plan to reward their top general after an electoral rout tells you all you need to know about their refusal to acknowledge the shifting political landscape -- and thus about their chances of regaining majority status any time soon.

Ms. Pelosi's iron-fisted, activist liberalism just led House Democrats to the back benches. Two more years of the same and the next stop might be oblivion.