As the Democrats squabbled at Monday’s debate hosted by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Republicans rejoiced.The more the Democratic candidates took personal shots at one another, the larger the opening seemed for the G.O.P. to rebound from what once seemed like a bleak outlook for a party victory in the upcoming 2008 general elections.

Pundits agree: the entire Democratic Party lost the CNN debate.

No longer is it just Hillary Clinton taking on Barack Obama in front of the Democratic race for nomination. Now, the Clinton Team — Hillary and former President Bill — are double-teaming Obama explicitly, pulling out all stops and causing the Illinois Senator to admit that sometimes he is unsure who he is running against.

As President Clinton makes his rounds in South Carolina, he has taken to the tactic of, first, belittling Obama by calling his presidential run a “fairy tale,” and second, by drawing attention to the role race and gender play in the upcoming election.

The last thing the Democratic Party needs right now is for any excessive petty squabbles to lower their credibility as being “above” all the typical political games.

If the Democrats plan on taking over the White House, they better work on playing nicer amongst each other, lest the G.O.P. candidates swoop in and give us four more miserable years under the same party who claim President George W. Bush as their own — just not so much publicly around election time.

(If that doesn’t tell you something about their operation, then you’re not paying attention.)