WASHINGTON — What a year that was — 2005!

It's surely a year that George Bush is glad to see past, since his path politically was mostly downhill from Inauguration Day onward. The president was still standing at year's end, but no longer were Democrats intimidated by him and no longer were Republicans in automatic lockstep.

Iraq was the major source of his troubles, with the outcome of the struggle still uncertain as the third anniversary of the war approached. But at home, high energy prices and stagnant incomes kept millions from enjoying the healthy economy.

It was also not a year that enhanced the reputation of Vice President Cheney, whose top aide was indicted for perjury and whose adamant defense of often indefensible policies did little to improve his standing.

As a group, the former presidents fared better than the current occupant of the Oval Office, with Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton drawing praise for their humanitarian efforts and Jerry Ford continuing to serve as a model of civility.

Three of the new Bush Cabinet members helped bolster the performance of the administration: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice brought a healing touch to U.S. relations with Europe. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings showed sensible flexibility in administering the No Child Left Behind law, but protected its essential features. And Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt negotiated Medicaid fixes while planning for the contingencies of a possible avian flu outbreak.

By contrast, the Department of Homeland Security flunked its big test in Hurricane Katrina, and the Justice Department besmirched its reputation by allowing politics to override professional judgment in the civil rights division's handling of the Texas and Georgia voting cases. Messing with the franchise is an outrage demanding congressional investigation of that department.

On Capitol Hill, in a landscape scarred by scandal and partisanship, two veterans stood out. John McCain played host to the Gang of 14 and the Arizona Republican was instrumental in averting a crippling showdown over judicial filibusters. At the end of the year, he also prevailed — over Bush and Cheney — on the moral issue of barring abuse of terrorist suspects.

On the other side of the Capitol, in the other party, Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania offered a similar profile in courage. Murtha became famous late in 2005 by offering a serious (if ill-timed) proposal for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. His larger, and largely unheralded, contribution was the appropriations language requiring periodic reports to Congress on benchmarks of progress in Iraq, the essential tool for getting the policy right.

Among the governors, my favorite group of public officials, 2005 was as good a year as it was dismal for Congress. With revenues up and welfare rolls down, many of them were able to try innovations in schools, transportation and other areas that actually improved life for their constituents.

One of them, California's Arnold Schwarzenegger, had a rocky time of it, launching a badly misjudged battle with the Legislature and the public employee unions and losing resoundingly in a public referendum on his ballot initiatives. But he is resilient politically and already has recast himself as a Republican reincarnation of Pat Brown, the great build-California Democratic governor, positioning himself for an election comeback in November.

It's hard to foresee an equally swift recovery for the press corps, for whom 2005 was close to a disaster. Two mainstream organizations — the New York Times and the Washington Post — had reporters and editors cast in unflattering light for their handling of sensitive "leak" stories, and many other news organizations reduced staffs and news coverage in response to the continuing migration of readers to the Internet — or to indifference. Regaining trust — and reviving the audience — will not come easily.

At year's end, one journalist who earned that trust from a broad range of readers, Bill Raspberry, announced he was giving up his column to focus on his teaching at Duke and his good works in his native Mississippi. Bill has been a great friend and colleague at the Post — and is exactly the kind of voice of reason you hate to lose at a moment like this, when so many others seem only to rant and rave.

Meantime, the structural challenges that shadow the nation's future continue to go mostly unattended. Nothing effective was done to address the linked problems of long-term budget deficits, Social Security and Medicare reform. And the dysfunctional health care system got only a few marginal repairs.

Let's hope for better in 2006.