Remember back when all those high-powered White House officials leaked the identity of former CIA operative Valerie Plame, thereby ruining all her future career prospects, and leaving her with no recourse except to slap them with a lawsuit (that will inevitably be tossed) and write a book about her experience as an undercover agent (which will, undoubtedly, be quashed by the CIA prior to publication) all because of some stupid, silly grudge they had against Valerie's husband, Joseph Wilson?

Well, no final word on the book as of yet, but CNN is reporting that the lawsuit is dead in the water.

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by outed spy Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband against Vice President Dick Cheney and other top Bush administration officials.

Plame had accused members of the Bush administration of leaking her identity.

U.S. District Judge John Bates ruled that the lawsuit raises "important questions relating to the propriety of actions undertaken by our highest government officials" — but in a 41-page decision, Bates found the Wilsons failed to show the case belongs in federal court.

We'd like to say this caught us totally off guard, which would almost be true, if only "off guard" meant "exactly what we thought would happen." (You know, kind of like how we felt when Bush commuted Scooter Libby's jail sentence!)

But disappointed or not, we've got some unsolicited advice for Ms. Valerie Plame. Let it go.

Jeez, Val, what's it been, a few year now? Half a decade? Seriously, even Judith Miller's already moved on.

Besides, it doesn't take a former CIA operative to know this is one uphill battle that you're just not gonna win.