Without hazarding a guess as to the names of the leakers, it is overwhelmingly likely that they were, and are, passionate Bush loyalists. (Unlike in previous administrations, I do not know a single senior White House official who is not deeply, emotionally committed to the president. There are few, if any, time-servers on his staff.) Moreover, the men and women with responsibilities for the war on terrorism (out of which pool doubtlessly would be found the leakers), are passionately committed to the rightness of the president's anti-terrorism policies. For them (and for many other Americans) his personal and policy success is actually a matter of national life and death.

Usually, leak hunts are targeted on people suspected of leaking against the institution. Such leakers either disagree with the policy of their boss, are aligned with a different political tribe in the Washington jungle or feel underappreciated by their superiors. Sometimes they are just showing off or building relationships with reporters. In any of those circumstances, they have already emotionally disconnected themselves from the institution and superior they nominally still serve. Their highest objective is to stay hidden and survive. But almost certainly in this instance, the leakers were trying to help the president they are deeply committed to on both a personal and policy basis.

So, put yourself in the leakers' minds today. They must feel deeply conflicted. Their actions have backfired. Instead of brushing back disloyal CIA political players, there are FBI agents rifling through the White House files of the leakers' co-workers. Democratic Party partisans are crying out for special prosecutors. The president -- for whom they have been loyally working 14 hours a day -- probably to the significant neglect of their spouse and children -- is put on the defensive, passively expressing hope that the Justice Department will get to the bottom of this problem.

These leakers -- being senior officials -- understand how debilitating the investigation is to their co-workers and the president. The White House is distracted from its primary policy and political duties, while staff-to-staff relations suffer from suspicion and embarrassment.

When the leakers sit in their living rooms at night -- three scotches on the wrong side of sobriety -- painful thoughts must torment them. The choices are ugly. Come forward and confess, thereby saving your president but harming you and your family, perhaps irrevocably (legal costs, humiliation, financial ruin, end of career, perhaps divorce). Sit tight, hope not to get caught and know that your silence has damaged and may destroy your president, and perhaps your country you care so deeply about. Or drown yourself in destructive behavior and try to forget. From the perspective of time, the leakers would see that the first choice is the right one. We should all hope they gain that perspective quickly.