The Republicans may be imploding, but it seems Democrats might tear themselves apart and start a civil war. First Joe Lieberman’s (rather successful, so far) defection from the party, now a war between supporters of Hillary Clinton and John Edwards. Edwards’ wife recently commented that she’s happier than Hillary. She claims the comments were misquoted, but the magazine is standing by the writer.

It’s probably not as bad as the media has made it out to be — apparently Edwards called and apologized — but the Washington Post article linked above called it a “faint foreshadowing of the intraparty battle that could arise when Democrats choose their presidential nominee in two years.”

Recently I had a conversation where a colleague of mine pointed out that, for a nominee hopeful besides Clinton, attacking would be the only way to stand out. In the big scheme of things of course this is stupid — one of you will win, and the other will have given Republicans ammo for their ads. “Even Democrat John Edwards thinks this about Hillary…” But it seems to be happening already.

Republican stupidity has given Democrats a great opportunity for the next two elections. But to take it, they are going to have to present a unified front (a liberal Contract with America with a conservative cause or two thrown in, if you will) that Americans can get behind. Clawing each others’ eyes out is just going to help Republicans in the end.

Robert VerBruggen blogs at http://robertsrationale.blogspot.com.