Tue 17 May 2005
What is, perhaps, most striking is the degree to which his presence highlights a clash of political cultures. Galloway showed no deference or respect for the US Senate, but nor would he or many other MPs do so in Parliament. The degree to which his behaviour seems slightly shocking - not just the content of his testimony, but his overall demeanour - indicates how often American politicians evade the hard questions. This is at least partially caused by an almost intertial respect for power, not just on the part of those in political life but also the national US media. Closer to the corridors of power than their British counterparts, American reporters are more easily coopted.
Some choice excerpts from Galloway’s testimony:
On the accusations against him: “I am here today - but last week you already found me guilty. You traduced my name around the world without ever having asked me a single question, without ever having contacted me, without ever having written to me or telephoned me, without any contact with me whatsoever - and you call that justice.”
“What counts is not the names on the paper. What counts is where’s the money, senator? Who paid me money, senator? Who paid me hundreds of thousands of dollars? … The answer to that is nobody - and if you had anybody who paid me a penny, you would have produced them here today.”
“You have nothing on me, senator, except my name on lists of names from Iraq, many of which have been drawn up after the installation of your puppet government in Baghdad.”
To sub-committee chair Senator Norm Coleman: “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.”
On his two meetings with Saddam Hussein: “The difference is 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.”
And on the most recent war: “Senator, in everything I said about Iraq I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong - and 100,000 have paid with their lives, 1,600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies.”
“I was an opponent of Saddam Hussein when the British and American governments and businessmen were selling him guns and gas … I have a better record of opposition to Saddam Hussein than you do.”
Self-promoting grandstanding? Maybe. But it makes a change from the usual grovelling and deference.
I still haven’t made up my own mind about how dodgy I think Galloway is, but I have decided that I really like Oona King (who he just defeated as MP for Bethnal Green & Bow), even if she did vote for the Iraq war. Her father was expelled from the US for draft-dodging, while her grandad founded the NAACP. Her mother, meanwhile is Jewish (hence her presence as a target for anti-semitism during this and the previous election). This interview with her, at least, shows her to be absurdly likeable and kind of kick-ass.
I mean, does your elected representative describe herself as “a socially maladjusted fucking maniac”?
Posted by B. W. Ventril as Politification at 8:19 PM EDT
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