Where's The Outrage?

Briefly mentioned in Dan Froomkin's White House Briefing, this story should be everywhere. No member of the Bush Administration should be able to appear in public without being asked about it. Democrats should consider tattooing this Condoleezza Rice quote on their foreheads.

One of the most-cited gotchas from Thursday was Bush's assertion that "the A.Q. Khan network has been brought to justice."

But CNN reports that national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, appearing on Late Edition, "said Bush did not misspeak when he said that the network of Pakistan's A.Q. Khan -- the founder of Pakistan's nuclear program who was caught selling secrets on the global black market -- had been 'brought to justice.'

"Khan is living in a villa and was pardoned this year by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. None of Khan's co-conspirators have been brought to trial."

Here's how Rice explained it, from the Late Edition transcript.

"A.Q. Khan is out of business and he is out of the business that he loved most. And if you don't think that his national humiliation is justice for what he did, I think it is. He's nationally humiliated."

These people are fundamentally unserious about the War on Terror. There's no other explanation for why the National Security Adviser would consider the "humiliation" of being driven out of business to be adequate punishment for selling nuclear secrets. Peaceful protesters at the Republican National Convention got harsher punishment than that.

Where are the warbloggers on this one? If Rice were a Democrat, they'd be calling for her head.