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This week brought the odd juxtaposition of two seemingly unrelated events: the death of former South Korean president Kim Dae Jung, and the visit to the United States of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. What links the two events is America's human rights policy--or lack of it.

This week, Kim died--and Hosni Mubarak was greeted in Washington with hosannas from the White House. He hadn't been here in 5 years, skipping his usual spring visits out of pique at George Bush's suggestions that reform and democracy were needed in Egypt. It is no accident that he skipped the spring visit this year too, seeking a time when Congress would be out of town and thereby eliminating any risk of untoward remarks about democracy from the Hill. Unless he read the Washington Post's...