George Galloway had vowed to give US senators "both barrels" and after sitting - coiled - through an hour-and-half of testimony against him, he unloaded all his ammunition. Far from displaying the forelock-tugging deference to which senators are accustomed, Mr Galloway went on the attack. He rubbished committee chairman Norm Coleman's dossier of evidence and stared him in the eye.
"Now I know that standards have slipped over the last few years in Washington, but for a lawyer, you are remarkably cavalier with any idea of justice," the MP declared.
The whole room scanned Mr Coleman's face for a reaction. The senator shifted in his seat - nervously it seemed.
Frickin' Hi-larious.
"I have a rather better record of opposition to Saddam Hussein than you do, and than any member of the British or American governments do," he told the committee... Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong"
According to the BBC 'Mr Coleman tried desperately to take it without emotion, but at one point could not resist breaking in to a smile.'
I have to laugh at the senators, 11 of whom did not turn up to the hearing. What were they thinking of? What did they expect to happen? They had no evidence, they had no reasoned case. Did they expect him to give them an easy ride? Perhaps too long in power has made them complacent.
Anyway they should have anticipated that intelligent working class British people are the least deferential and impressed people on the planet.
