> Galloway, right on the war, incredible orator, but, I suspect in
>the end we'll have confirmed he was in the receipt of Saddammist $.
No, I would be surprised if Galloway was motivated by financial gain, you can argue with his politics, but the attempt to circumvent the argument by finding his fingers in the till is just childish.
I wouldn't even fault him necessarily for 'bending the knee to Saddam', though he does seem to have got a bit carried away. After all, no-one could accuse him of courting popularity - it was a brave thing to challenge the anti-Iraq consensus, and those like Johann Hari are insincere in their manufactured sympathy for 'ordinary Iraqis' (a sympathy necessitating permanent warfare against them), whereas Galloway is not.
I would take issue with his adaptation to religious bigotry in Britain, such as his opposition to abortion, or the Respect Coalition's courting of the Mosque elders, by playing down their own socialist views, or their protests against strip clubs.
But nobody ought to begrudge his mettle in the Senate (except maybe for yielding to the temptation to play up the plucky little Britain part, but perhaps that is a nuance that passes you trans-Atlantics by).
James Heartfield