Sure, fine-tuning is needed to get the base back on-course. But values are in---really in---and they're not going away.
No less a liberal than Newsweak's Eleanor Clift has said that if the new Dem majority gives Alcee Hastings--an impeached ex-judge--a leadership position, the Dem majority is doomed, and will last only two years. That's how strongly liberals are taking the "values" message.
Even Nancy Pelosi knows the drill---Nancy snubbed liberal Rep Jane Harman (D-Cal) for a leadership role b/c Harman is under investigation by the USAG for allegedly getting improper help from AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying group, regarding the House intelligence committee.
Summing up---if the Dims make one false move on values, conservatives will be all over them like a cheap suit.