These are large and mighty lessons from the minority party. It might behoove Republicans at all levels of party life to keep rags and silver polish handy to make these lessons bright when, as they must some day, the Democrats retake control. What's the fun of minority status if not to make the majority miserable? I think that about capsulizes the present Democratic attitude.

 It never is fair to posit some magical time when politicians of different parties and large ambitions worked together large-mindedly for the common good. Politics, based as it is on the lust for power, is about as nasty as a trade as, well, pro football. Republicans, we may now have to admit, overdid the Bill Clinton thing -- indeed, showed the guy the same kind of visceral dislike many Democrats manifest toward George Bush.

 And yet those relatively recent times were unlike our own. Mainly, there was no war demanding the commander-in-chief's unimpeded leadership until victory. Even if every article of Sen. Joseph Biden's weekend knock against White House integrity proved Gospel true, where would that get us at the moment? What good would it do?

 Democratic rancor over the war and the high court makes it hard for members of the two parties even to talk civilly to each other. That's why this word to wise Democrats. What goes around can come right back and bite you in the hinderquarters. Likely the Republicans should have taken that advice to heart back in impeachment times, but you know what? That's gone. What's left is the ugliness and corrosiveness of 2005 -- of which, if you know human nature, you can bet we haven't seen nearly the last.