It's surely gratifying for conservatives to observe the internecine squabbles taking place in the Democratic Party even before its members officially take control of Congress in January. Incoming Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is off to a rocky start, not only continuing her feud with Maryland's quasi-moderate Rep. Steny Hoyer, the incoming House majority leader, but also alienating the Congressional Black Caucus for passing on Florida Rep. Alcee Hastings for the key post of Intelligence Committee chairman. Her compromise selection of Texas Rep. Silvestre Reyes, despite his vote against the Iraq war, isn't likely to quell the Congressional Black Caucus dissent. The media, after several post-election days of praising Pelosi for her alleged bareknuckles political acumen, not to mention her stylish wardrobe, quickly changed course and wondered whether the "honeymoon" was over.

Yet when the new year begins and the Democrats dominate the news with legislative proposals and relentlessly pummel President Bush like a half-dead dog, I wonder if the Republican Party will realize it's already in trouble for the 2008 election. Not if the enthusiasm for outgoing Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a leading contender for the GOP presidential nomination, is any indication.

Romney's traipsing around the country in an attempt to outflank Sen. John McCain for the conservative vote and is, at the least, garnering a lot of attention and money. Romney might be the most physically attractive national candidate in decades, but he's an electoral nightmare for anyone who's nervous about a possible President Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.

Let's begin with the fact that Romney, in the issues he's discussing at rallies and with political reporters, has learned nothing from the election results last month. And, for the sake of illustrating exactly how out of touch the multimillionaire Mormon is, we'll gloss over his vague opinions on Iraq and the entire Middle East crisis. Romney, in a transparent pitch to cultural conservatives, is making his opposition to the diminishing controversy of gay marriage a cornerstone of his all-but-announced campaign. That particular bubble has popped with most Americans; voters certainly have an opinion on the subject, but it's not a high priority.

Similarly, as Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele found out last month in his attempt for U.S. Senate, the resonance of opposition to embryonic stem-cell research has dwindled. Add, Romney's stubborn resistance to immigration reform isn't going to win him the presidency. The one-term governor, who rose to prominence for his efficient financial stewardship of the 2002 Winter Olympics, is stuck in a time warp, mouthing rhetoric that fit the political climate a couple of years ago but is already anachronistic for an '08 presidential run.

Republicans, sensibly, are already choosing sides, and Romney has won supporters in the conservative media. But Romney acolytes are deluding themselves if they think that the governor's religion isn't a hindrance to his candidacy. Yes, John F. Kennedy broke the Catholic barrier in 1960, but this is a country that still hasn't elected a female or Jewish president. Personally, I couldn't care less what church Romney attends, but there's a significant portion of the electorate that just can't abide the idea of a Mormon in the White House.

Play word association with "Mormon" and the most common answer will be, fair or not, "polygamy." (The stereotype is so ingrained that Romney's nearly 40-year marriage, to one woman, is irrelevant.) A Nov. 21 Rasmussen Reports survey showed that 53 percent of evangelical Christians won't pull the lever for a Mormon; the corresponding number for American adults in general is 43 percent. As Adam Reilly noted in a Slate.com piece last April, Romney's ham-handed humor on the subject won't help his cause. At a 2005 St. Patrick's Day breakfast in Boston Romney joked, "I believe marriage should be between a man and a woman . . . and a woman . . . and a woman."

Last week, The Boston Globe reported that for a decade Romney employed illegal Guatemalan immigrants, through the company Community Lawn Service with a Heart, to work on landscaping his family's home. The governor's spokesman said his boss knew nothing about the immigration status of the employees. Romney himself, pressed by a Globe reporter, simply muttered, "Aw, geez," and walked away. That Romney, who, according to the Globe story, exchanged occasional pleasantries with the gardeners (paid in cash), never wondered about their legal status is fishy, and it certainly doesn't square with his public thundering about the need for a fence on the U.S.-Mexico border and advocacy of stationing National Guard troops there.

It's time for the GOP to practice pragmatic politics and rally around McCain, the most electable candidate in the party. The Arizona senator, rapidly losing his appeal with the reporters who praised his "straight talk" during his 2000 nomination battle with Bush, isn't ideal--he's squishy on taxes and judicial nominees, for example--but 2008 isn't apt to be an ideal year for any Republican candidate. In this era of the "permanent campaign," Republicans ought to compromise and anoint McCain as the presumptive nominee, even if it causes their stomachs to churn.