Where's the outrage?

A spokesman for Gov. Haley Barbour says the governor's ritzy, taxpayer-funded whirlings around the nation on a private jet are "an effective marketing tool in a state that really needs it."

The spokesman is probably right, and scores of Republican pols would defend to the death Haley's pricey travels, even though they recently denounced as unconscionable U.S. Speaker of House Nancy Pelosi's humble roamings on a government plane.

But said Democratic state Rep. George Flaggs of Mississippi: Barbour's "traveling doesn't bother me. I know that the governor may or may not use the plane for political purposes. That's what politicians do."

Come on, George. Come on, Dems. You're supposed to declare such political commonplaces commmitted by the opposition as unprecedented outrages -- as diabolical violations of the public trust which prefigure no less than the apocalyptic collapse of democratic virtue itself.

So come on, guys. Get with it. Work up some outrage, however outrageous.