“DENVER! DENVER! DENVER!” supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) chanted. Then they walked out of the hotel ballroom and declared that this was no longer their Democratic Party, and that they would never vote for Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) if he wins the nomination.

After a full and intense day of debate and presentations the committee had ruled that the full delegation of Florida can be seated but each delegate will only have half a vote. Michigan will use a staggered formula, seating 128 delegates -- 69 for Clinton and 59 for Obama -- but they too will only get half a vote.

Democratic leaders had hoped that the ruling would help bring the party together and would resolve one of the outstanding issues that stood in the way of selecting a nominee. The theme throughout the day from the committee members, the various presenters and DNC Chairman Howard Dean was that the party would emerge from the protracted nomination battle united.

However, that might be easier said than done.

The Democratic Party should for all practical purposes be in the driver’s seat heading into November. President Bush has anemic approval ratings and his would-be successor – Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) – supports him on the unpopular Iraq War.

Democratic primary turnout is breaking records in every state, and both history-making candidates have shattered fundraising records.

Democrats are excited, mobilized and opening their wallets.

But as the Rules and Bylaws Committee settled on two formulas as a way to seat both Florida and Michigan, one possibly fatal problem became clear: The Democratic Party is far from unified, and it might be a while before it is.

Clinton suffered a tough day as her already improbable comeback bid was dealt another blow as the committee refused to seat the full delegations at full strength for either state.

Harold Ickes, a senior Clinton adviser and a member of the committee, seethed throughout the day, but as the passage of the Michigan proposal looked imminent, he made a statement that is sure to send chills down the spine of Democrats who were already worried about party division.

“Mrs. Clinton has instructed me to reserve her rights to take this to the credentials committee,” Ickes told the committee.

While the results in and of themselves represented closure of sorts, the work of the party might just be beginning.

After the committee returned from a three-hour lunch break – one hour for lunch, two for an unannounced closed-door session – the vibrations in the room turned nasty.

When one candidate’s name was mentioned, the other side booed and hissed. When committee members lectured the crowd on rules and decorum, they were shouted at.

Alice Huffman, a committee member, asked the crowd to refrain from its antics, but she too was booed.

“When we get this vote, we will leave here more unified than when we came here,” she told the audience.

The subsequent laughter from the crowd was as loud as the boos had been.

All of the theater and infighting could be moot after the last contests – South Dakota and Montana – on Tuesday.

Former Rep. David Bonior (D-Mich.), a senior Obama adviser and former campaign manager for ex-Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), told The Hill that, after Tuesday, Obama will probably only need about 30 superdelegates to hit the new magic number of 2,118.

If Obama does win the nomination, he might find that he is inheriting a party with deep rifts.

Before the last Michigan vote, Ickes became the first speaker of the day to suggest that party unity is easier said than achieved.

“I submit to you, ladies and gentlemen, that… this is not a good way to start down the path to party unity,” he said.

The Clinton supporters cheered heartily.