The Democrats, as the old saw goes, just can't miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. After investing so much time and capital in ensuring Nevada secured the second-in-the-nation caucus on Jan. 19 - five days after Iowa - the Democrats saw initial dividends with all nine of the contenders visiting the state in one February week. Illinois Sen. Barack Obama was in Las Vegas on a Sunday, and a few days later, all eight of his primary foes were in Carson City for a forum that was televised to the nation.

The Democrats were getting all the attention. The Republicans were asleep at the wheel, and most didn't know it. And the Democrats' prospects for 2008 in Nevada, at least superficially, seemed bullish.

So what happens when the Democrats have too much prosperity? They resort to cannibalism, of course.

How else to explain the lunacy of a debate over whether the Fox should be left to play in the Democratic henhouse, which has divided the party and caused a national sensation on the liberal blogs. It has cast Sen. Harry Reid, who was singularly responsible for bringing the early caucus here, in the role of villain and resulted in the majority leader's evisceration by bloggers apoplectic that the party wants to partner with the O'Reilly network to televise a debate in August.

Talk about no good deed going unpunished. Imagine how Reid must feel as the malcontents on the central committees - boards populated by nincompoops and socially deficient partisans - have fueled this uprising.

Forget that Reid, who has had to recruit labor leaders to defend the Fox invasion, is right that the national attention and broader audience makes it worth dealing with a network many of the faithful consider the enemy. So why make such a big deal about this?

As one conservative commentator put it recently, the blogosphere is manna for the right because the liberal cyberspacies attack the Democrats and the conservative Internet geeks lambaste the liberal media. How can the GOP lose in that equation? It is good business.

Into the breach comes one Pete Ernaut, the former GOP executive director and assemblyman turned lobbyist and PR man. Ernaut, a former organizer and campaign manager, realizes the Democrats have a tactical advantage that could be long lasting. He decides to recruit the elected officials to move a meaningless April primary up to a February caucus. Penalties from the national folks prevent the caucus from being as early as the Democrats.

The impact will never be what the Nevada Democratic caucus will have. But it will be better than April and even though it may be greatly diminished if the race is decided on the mega-slate of primaries on Feb. 5, having the Nevada GOP cast votes two days later might be significant.

And what Ernaut realized is that even if it's not, the candidates will visit, refusing to take the chance that Feb. 5 will decide it and surely mining the Las Vegas Boulevard South addresses for all the campaign cash they can. And this is - at least for now - one of the most wide open GOP primaries in memory. More importantly, the excitement generated by the earlier event will help the Republicans organize for Campaign '08 and beyond.

It is, as Ernaut and other Republican leaders realize, good business. And while the GOP may have internecine squabbles as ne'er-do-wells try to gum up the works, the Republicans won't be creating an embarrassing national scene that could make the Democrats look like kooks and incompetents.

The Republicans know that in politics, like in business, a united front is important. The Democrats, it seems, would rather fight than win. And in a state where the Democrats are solid underdogs to ever win a statewide race when everything else is equal, that's a losing proposition.