Follow-Up

I should've expected that C-Span would chicken out on rerunning the showdown between George Galloway, Norm "Schoolboy" Coleman, and Carl Levin...however, the BBC has streaming video, which I caught last night after reading a transcript over at DailyKos (Counterpunch has Galloway's opening remarks).

One thing's certain--the MP got the best of Christopher Snitchens:

Before the hearing began, the independent MP for Bethnal Green and Bow had some scorn to bestow generously upon the pro-war writer Christopher Hitchens. "You're a drink-soaked former Trotskyist popinjay," Mr Galloway informed him. "Your hands are shaking. You badly need another drink," he added later, ignoring Mr Hitchens's questions and staring intently ahead. "And you're a drink-soaked ..." Eventually Mr Hitchens gave up. "You're a real thug, aren't you?" he hissed, stalking away.

Popinjay...them Brits got a way with words.

Coleman engaged in a rather crude attempt at establishing guilt-by-association via the person Fawaz Zureikat, the company Aredio Petroleum, and former Iraqi official Dahar Yassein Ramadan (now in US custody and facing the death penalty). Zureikat is most definitely an associate of Galloway's, but if we follow Coleman's logic, then perhaps George W. Bush should be called to testify, given that HE'S an associate of Dick Cheney, who's company likewise did business with Iraq during the years in question. It might also be enlightening to research any connection between the GOP and Bay Oil/David Chalmers, the Houston company/individual now in the thick of what was supposed to be Operation-Smack-Down-Kofi (and, since we can, his kid) Before-He-Gets-Too- Uppity.

Oh...and as for Carl Levin--geez, I guess he felt a filial need to defend the august institution and/or his hapless colleague, but he came across as utterly inconsequential. Watching the sad little sparring session made me think that, if Levin was DA, he'd ignore gangland murders on the (Middle) East Side because he was shocked, shocked, by someone guilty of a rolling stop across town.

Galloway probably won't open the eyes of anyone who isn't already aware of how badly Operation-How-Can-We-Hide-the-Bodies-WE'RE-Responsible-For? is going, but it's nonetheless good to have on the record someone who points out the salient fact that EVERYTHING Team Bush claims has turned out to be, in his words "the mother of all smokescreens." In addition, he noted the degree to which this country has failed in maintaining BASIC principles of free society, e.g., the right to confront one's accusers seems to have been thrown out the window. Finally, he pretty convincingly demonstrated that Norm Coleman is, well, a chump, and a bit of a sore loser, reduced to lashing out with empty threats of perjury charges.

That's something you just don't see everyday in this country.