As he emerged triumphant from his showdown with the Senate committee on Tuesday, George Galloway told reporters: “I’m a politician that pleads guilty to using events like these for political purposes.”
By most reckoning the British MP, an outspoken leftwinger who has campaigned in the UK against Iraq’s occupation, stole the show.
The hearing, chaired by Republican Norm Coleman, had been presented as an opportunity for the committee to interrogate Mr Galloway over his alleged involvement in Iraq’s oil-for-food programme and his alleged support for Saddam Hussein. The investigators had even offered to send airline tickets to ensure his attendance.
But in the event it was Mr Galloway who was on the offensive and it was Mr Coleman’s credibility that was called into question.
Maybe the Senate confused Galloway with a member of the pliant gutless US media like Newsweek and assumed he could be bullied. Galloway, a vocal outspoken critic of the Iraq War, was targetted by the US right wing, who got their heads handed to them on a platter. Would it be the US had politicians with this this kind of cojones.