Play Nice!

Ronald Reagan, whatever his innumerable other faults, did have a useful bit of advice for his fellow partisans - that they not badmouth eachother. This is the famous "11th commandment" - thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican. Argue over tactics, over strategy, but don't challenge each other's character (particularly not in public) unless you have a very, very good reason.

Democrats would do well to take some of that advice. It seems of late that our internal debates about the Democratic message and positions on assorted issues have escalated into out-and-out brawls. Last week Kos bashed Marshall Wittman as a vitual apologist for the Theocons. New Donkey was then forced to take up his friend's defense. This was not an isolated case - something similar is happening with regards to the Ohio Senate race, with candidate Paul Hackett lumping together Mike DeWine and Sherrod Brown, and David Sirota calling Hackett "disgusting."

Look people, we all need to chill out. Perhaps this sort of vituperative name-calling is tolerable when your party is in the majority, but we can't afford this sort of nonsense. If we have been forced to abandon the idea that there are any longer reasonable people to work with on the other side of the aisle, let's at least admit that there are people of good will on our own. Save your heavy artillery for the real enemy.