Perhaps it's good the Bush administration is getting the third year of the second term out of the way in the first. Soldier up, learn from the mistakes, move on. But move on they can't. Not yet.

The Alito bump notwithstanding, a peculiar sort of depression affects many Republicans these days. Indictments both grave and specious? Sigh. The Harriet Miers internecine death-match? Alas.

But there's more. The Valerie Plame imbroglio suggests -- merely suggests, mind you -- that the left's true objective is to undermine the rationale for war to cripple a wartime president for short-term political gain.

A shocking charge. Almost unimaginable! But look at the history. Five years of pessimism and defeatism from the chattering class has made conservatives wonder why they bother. From the quagmire of Afghanistan -- the brutal winter looms! -- to the quagmire in the first week of the Iraq operation, every action is seen through a dark, cracked prism of fear and defeat.

Never mind the constitutional vote; there were graphic designers who spent a nice, comfy workday sifting through their collections of fonts, looking for the right typeface to herald the 2,000th casualty. (Hmm. Helvetica Bold? No, used that for the 1,000th death.) Prime example: an editorial cartoon by Mike Luckovich, which had 2,000 soldiers' names forming the word "Why?"

You have to ask? Well, one more time:

Because we've been told by all the root-causers that the lack of freedom in Arab nations breeds desperate terrorists. Because it's better to leave a country with a democracy and a constitution than nuke it clean and walk away whistling. Because the United States has been at odds with Iraq since 1990, and the alternative was more oil-for-food corruption and porous sanctions until Saddam was free to romp about untrammeled.

Because upsetting the precious "stability" of the Middle East gave Libya a case of the yips, helped mobilize the occupied Lebanese and even made Egypt pretend to hold a good election. Because it gave the United States bases right next door to Iran, the leader of which has announced that Israel and the U.S. should be destroyed. With nukes.

Because after 9/11, leaving rogue states to their own devices and hoping Kofi Annan and Jacques Chirac would talk down our enemies seemed a rather weak definition of defense.

Oh, sorry. Mentioned 9/11. That's not permitted. Iraq has nothing to do with 9/11. Iraq is about Halliburton and oil, just as the invasion of Sicily in World War II was about cannoli and Chianti. According to some, Bush just threw a dart at a map in 2002; it hit Iraq, and off we went. According to others, he came into office determined to invade Iraq -- sure, the Clinton administration had made regime change the official U.S. policy, but at least it wasn't foolish enough to do anything about it.

Point out to the critics that Saddam gave refuge to the man who planned the first attack on the World Trade Center, and you'll get a dismissive wave of the hand: That was '93.

Point out the constant assertions in the Clinton years of Saddam's WMD capabilities and connections with terrorist groups -- points made by the mainstream media and accepted as fact by all -- and you get another wave: Well, we found no WMDs.

Why waste time connecting those dots? Those are old and boring dots. What matters most is whether the lies about yellowcake -- Bush's lies, of course, not Joe Wilson's -- led to the outing of a double-secret CIA agent.

Point out how the left used to regard the revelation of covert agents' names as a civic duty, and eyes roll. This is now, please.

Once upon a time you could count on both sides to have the same set of assumptions and facts. Now you have Howard Dean's favorite singer, Wyclef Jean, rapping about "Father Saddam."

Of course the Republicans are depressed. The media and the Democrats appear to have improved on the old description of the Bourbon monarchy: They have learned nothing. And forgotten everything.

Letter-writer talking points: The above was a transparent attempt to shift attention away from Scooter. Because that's really the biggest problem the nation has faced in the last five years. Osama bin Libby.