Even on a day when a late-summer rain coats the arthritic woods, it is clear that Idaho Panhandle National Forest is sick. To save this forest, one of the biggest in the United States, federal officials have concluded that they have to burn or log sections of it, tear out some roads and then hope that nature takes over the healing. The Bush administration and Western republicans like that idea, especially the pushing to go further: to suspend environmental laws and citizen appeals so logging in dangerously fire-prone forests like this one can be done without disruption.The White House has asked Congress to exempt about 10 million acres, or 4 million hectares, of federal forest land from environmental reviews to speed treatment of overgrown forests.