17/05/2005
Galloway gets his day in, er, the Senate
Say what you like about George – and people certainly have – he’s a damn good performer. Yesterday afternoon’s transfer of the moustachioed Scotsman’s vituperative political style from the East End to the genteel setting of the US senate did not disappoint.
Americans like their politics sedate, polite and scripted. They are not used to furious Scotsmen appearing on their TV screens accusing top members of their government of being liars in a voice so furious that it could unblock a drain at fifty paces and, what’s more, doing the whole thing without any notes.
But that’s what George did yesterday, rebutting convincingly each accusation thrown at him by the Senate Committee that claims he was a clandestine beneficiary of the Iraq oil for food programme. George’s opening ten minute salvo contained a withering series of ripostes to these charges, the choicest being to point out that, yes indeed, he met Saddam Hussein, but only twice – the same amount of times in fact as Donald Rumsfeld.
“The difference is,” George pointed out to a gawping Senate Committee, “Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns and maps - the better to target those guns. I met him to try to bring about an end to sanctions, suffering and war."
George's assault was so unrelenting that what started out as an examination of his business dealings soon turned into Galloway beasting his accusers.
He laid into the committee's head Norm Coleman, the quality of the evidence against him (full of "schoolboy errors"), the US's foreign policy, the US government, the true beneficiaries of the oil for food programme (US businesses allegedly owned by Republican interests) and the paucity of post-war planning in Iraq.
He called the American Government liars, and pointed out that over 100,000 Iraqis and 1,600 US troops had lost their lives as a result of these lies.
And thanks to the committee’s accusations and generous invitation to appear before it, George has now made these rather sticky points on every 24-hour cable news service in the US. The White House will no doubt be overjoyed.
Expect frantic PR manoeuvrings in response.
Yours etc,
Spinoff.
18:25 Posted in News | Permalink | Comments (5) | Email this
Comments
oh come on - he's so obviously on the take it's not funny. Galloway's gross.
Posted by: AA | 18/05/2005
Given that he's not the only man being investigated, GG is a small cog in a very big wheel. The PR manoeuvrings weren't so much frantic as, well, non-existent. By now the Bush administration is fairly used to the sort of criticisms that he was levelling, and they were deadbatted accordingly. The Senate Committee, it was reported, 'just moved on'.
And he didn't go down that well on American TV, with a several commentators accusing him of 'ranting'. With good reason.
GG's political tightrope act makes great television, and the UK's love/hate relationship with him is a strange phenomenon, but beyond that I'm not sure the Americans really give a toss about the ranty Scotsman.
Posted by: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle | 18/05/2005
"Galloway's gross"? The one man who's had the courage to tell the Americans quite how reprehensible they've been over Iraq, and you call him "gross"? What about inspired, inspiring, the only person with the courage to stand up and be counted, a new MP on a massive swing, or just fantastically good news for the people of Britain and Iraq.
Posted by: Steam-driven catfish | 20/05/2005
but he's completely crooked. he's so obviously got potsof money that he shouldn't have and its all dodgy.
Posted by: AA | 20/05/2005
George was a legend. Stuck it right to those slimey self serving eejits. The thing that most amused me was the absolute surprise of the US senate. If you invite someone to answer serious accusations with full media coverage it is better on the whole to know who it is you are dealing with. Do you think anyone looked into his previous political life? His lifetime of making it difficult for the Labour leadership, his street fighting style honed on the mean streets of Glasgow or his indifference to respecting political institutions? Valuable lessons America. If you ask a Scot outside for a square go chances are you'll get a bloody nose.
Posted by: Serious | 02/06/2005
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