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There is a classic "Saturday Night Live" sketch from 2002 in which former Vice President Al Gore -- the real Al Gore, who was actually hosting the show that night -- is given a tour of the set of the show "The West Wing" by the show's actors, still smarting from his 2000 loss to George W. Bush.

Gore sits in the president's chair in the replica of the Oval Office. The actors invite Gore to leave that set and head with them to the set of the next scene. Gore responds: "I think I'll just stay here for a few minutes… and I'll catch up with you." The words "Several hours later" then appear as the scene reveals Gore still sitting in the president's chair, picking up the red phone and yelling "Get me Putin!" over and over again.

I was reminded of this sketch when I read a May 25 Jerusalem Post article that began: "Kadima leader Tzipi Livni finally formed a 'government' on Monday, seven months after failing to build a real coalition when she had the opportunity to do so in October."

Well, I thought, should someone say something, or should we let the former prime minister-designate play with the red phone for a few minutes more? But upon further consideration, I really couldn't decide: Has Livni lost it, or is she leading her party -- unceremoniously yanked from power upon mounting PR debacles and abuse-of-power scandals -- into a cohesive opposition?

We certainly hope it's the latter. A principled opposition can keep the administration in line and accountable for its decisions. It still isn't clear what this shadow government -- which has Kadima ministers "shadowing" their counterparts in the ruling coalition -- will accomplish, but it may throw Kadima a much-needed lifeline.

Kadima was the creation of a centrist party by Ariel Sharon to carry out the Gaza disengagement in 2005. As such, it was comprised of members of Sharon's Likud party and Shimon Peres' Labor party. But because it essentially had no animating ideology aside from evacuating Jewish communities in disputed territories, Sharon was unable to bring any real political talent with him.

Though Sharon was seen as a heroic figure -- for good reason -- he left behind Likudniks like current Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the stellar Limor Livnat. He couldn't pull in Laborites like current Defense Minister Ehud Barak or persuade former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon to run with Kadima that January. (Ayalon ran as a member of Labor and won.)

Personnel is policy, which may explain why Kadima has been an almost unmitigated disaster every day of its existence. It has not ceased unleashing a torrent of corruption, bad leadership, military demoralization, and its very own clownish brand of bureaucratic dysfunction on the Israeli public, who have been treated by Kadima as a nation of crash test dummies.

Kadima has been unable (and often unwilling) to defend its people, turning the Gaza disengagement into a hasty retreat from which it is still running and allowing its former settlers to live in tent cities as second-class citizens. It also botched the public relations aspect of the Second Lebanon War to such an extent that even though Israel won the war by any measure of military victory, the whole world believes that, a.) Israel lost the war to Iran's maniacal terrorist proxy in Lebanon, and b.) the IDF behaved like savages in so doing.

Livni has also been outmaneuvered by Netanyahu at every stage of their recent rivalry, leaving many to wonder whether Livni is a nicer and more honest -- but less clever -- version of Ehud Olmert. I think more of her than that, and that's why I hope she can solidify her party's platform and come up with a reason for her party's continued existence.

It hasn't gone so smoothly. First, after Netanyahu had worked overtime to come up with a balanced budget agreed upon by his Likud-Labor-Israel Beiteinu coalition, Livni accused Bibi of bowing to pressure to get the budget passed. It was a fairly incoherent statement from Livni; she accused Bibi of making cuts that he didn't, and never actually formulated a concrete opinion of what the budget should look like.

A few weeks later, she cautioned against the government dragging its feet with "unfruitful negotiations," only later to criticize Netanyahu for not negotiating enough with the Arab "moderates" in the region.

Livni is smart, usually poised, and still popular with the Israeli public despite her predecessor's rocky premiership. She must not, however, disagree with Bibi on things simply because she is the opposition.

A popular idiom for keeping spirits high when the clouds roll in is: "A cloud cannot cast a shadow unless the sun is shining beyond it."

My advice to Livni would be a slight paraphrase. Livni should remember that her "shadow" exists only because the sun is currently shining on her rival.

Seth Mandel is the managing editor of The Jewish State.