Politics often seems to take place in a quarrelsome world in which Republicans and Democrats gleefully spar over matters great and small, oblivious to what the rest of us might think.

How else to explain, for instance, the games played during the last legislative session, even as the voters were looking on, distinctly unamused?

The latest example of political high jinks, recounted in an Associated Press story on Sunday's front page, involved the pilfering of Web domain names. It turns out that the domain name www.lindamcculloch.com, which one might think belonged to Democrat Linda McCulloch, currently superintendent of public education and a candidate for secretary of state, actually was purchased by Republicans. It isn't saying nice things about her.

On the other side, Democrats have bought www.BobKeenan.com, just in case the former Republican state senator decides to run against Sen. Max Baucus or Gov. Brian Schweitzer.

Some call this "political cyberfraud," a form of identity theft. Others say it's just a logical maneuver in a political reality increasingly dominated by new technology. In any event, Mikki Berry, president of the Domain Name Rights Coalition, told the AP that no harm is done because "voters are smart enough to understand that a site attacking a candidate is not likely endorsed by that candidate."

The practice has been going on for some time now, and there is little talk of outlawing it. Only California has a law against it; Jacqueline Lipton, an expert on technology law at Case Western University, said she knows of no similar legislation elsewhere.

But that really isn't the point. What politicians and party faithful on both sides forget (or don't care about) is that most people don't see politics as a game of one-upmanship. They see government as a serious business that affects everyone, a business that really matters.

To treat the process of democracy as an excuse for juvenile antics turns a lot of people off. Americans have plenty reasons to be sick and tired of politics these days. Why add more?