Against all odds, against evidence and logic, they keep coming to Washington: dissidents, human rights crusaders, relatives of the persecuted from around the world. They hope for just one moment of moral clarity from America's leaders.
Last week alone, petitioners included the grieving fiancee of a Saudi journalist, slaughtered last year by a hit squad dispatched by that nation's crown prince; the forlorn daughter of a Uighur scholar who has not seen her father since he was torn from her in the Beijing airport six years ago; and a delegation from Hong Kong warning that its city-state is making a last stand as a free society while the United States stands by silently.