Coleman v. Galloway -- oil for food scandal

[MikeH]

It does mean that the politicians have to be able to withstand tough questioning as a survival skill which doesn't mean you necessarily get more out of them but you learn more about what they won't say at least and they have to really know their sh1t or they will get embarassed.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Good idea- transplant "Prime Minister's question time" to the US and watch your guys grow up in public very fast.

[MikeH]

Even better, transplant something like question time. I swear the public gives the politicians an even harder time than interviewers or other politicians. They don't care about the game of politics or the battle between interviewer and politician, they just want to find out the answer to their question.

Laz, who was that woman (member of the public I think...) who interviewed Thatcher about the Belgrano? I can't remember enough to google for a link but I saw it on TV the other week that's a classic.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Diana Gould. I remember watching that edition of "Nationwide"- my old man was pissing himself with laughter.

[MikeH]

Ah yes.

Actually I seem to remember Thatcher got rather a hard time on a kids morning TV show from a child when they had a phone in. That was also excellent.

[Agathon]

It gets better. Galloway humiliated Christopher Hitchens in the media scrum before the hearing.

Hitchens' questions brought this response from Galloway:

You're a drink-soaked former Trotskyist popinjay/

So true...

[dannubis]

Originally posted by notyoueither
Really?

I'm against anything that would involve removing Saddam.

I didn't agree with the UN. I don't agree with the US or the UK.

I am just going to sit here and hold my breath!

I'd say he self owned, if you actually think about what he was saying.

imagine that comming from your side...

seriously, i 've enjoyed this thoroughly. not that it will make much of a difference though.

[Alexander's Horse]

Galloway was brilliant - but all he really did was point out what an international laughing stock the USA has become.

[Agathon]

Galloway was brilliant - but all he really did was point out what an international laughing stock the USA has become.

What's even funnier is that they still don't get it.

It's like they walk in to a room and yell: "take us seriously or else!!!", and everyone else giggles.

[child of Thor]

Originally posted by Oerdin
I do wish we had a law requiring the President and members of Congress to have open public question and anwser sessions at least once a month. That Bush has only had one or two press confrences per year is a travisty. Even those press confrences amount to nothing more then Bush reading a pre-written speech and anwsering questions which were all submited in advance. Saddam did that.

Even Bush's "Town Hall" are coriographed and have only people who will gush over his every idea and utterence. That's not a healthy democracy nor is Bush using governent funds to promote his partisan political ideas like phasing out Social Security.

To compare the British have a very wide open system and the politicians get put on the spot with hard ball questions while a camera is stuffed in their face. That's a real press confrence.

The downside of this is you can end up with a very charismatic convincing guy, who is still a slimy weasel - its just much, much harder to prove. And when you can't find a similar guy in opposition, they will win election after election

Still even though Mr.Galloway is on the extreme side for my political tastes, he gave them what they truely deserved - some home truths

[Alexander's Horse]

The kicker is these so-called Senators couldn't come up with much more justify Bush and Tony Blah's stupid criminal war than the kind of hot war we see every day here from numbskulls like Ned.

The looks on their faces when someone forthrightly challenged the shiboleths of their Fox fuelled fantasy world was just priceless, absolutely priceless

And Dan S seriously thought American Senators, with their second rate education and woeful American rhetorical and debating skills, stood a chance against a mildly competent English speaking politician from a free country

It was great to see those pompous bloated Senate fatcats and place keepers reduced to nervous silence, looking like bunnies caught in the headlights, cringing in their high chairs. The crowdshots were great, people were smiling and giggling behind Galloway's head.

I don't think I've seen anything so good, or indeed such a blow for liberty and free speech, right in the den of the Great Satan since the McCarthy hearings.

I mean Galloway is a pretty run of the mill British polly in the firebrand mode and he completely pwned them. Coleman is probably still wondering what a lickspittle is, but he knows it ain't good

Then he mumbles something after about we'll get him if he lying - Yanks are just not good losers, never have been, ask a Cuban.

Yep, pwned, like the way we in countries that are still free with a half decent liberal education system pwn the Yanks here every day

Perhaps the greatest irony was I'm damn sure Galloway is no saint but what was required was a forensic questioning and examination of his record. Something which parliamentary committee members from any Westminster democracy would have been quite capable of.

But all the US Senators could come up with was dim questions based on the usual intellectually lazy agit prop which is the hallmark of the Bush Administration and Fox news.

Larry King Live could have done a better job of probing this guy.

[Ted Striker]

I just wrote Galloway and thanked him for laying the smackdown on the US Senate.

[Drake Tungsten]

Finally watched it and I can't really understand what you all are so excited about. It was pointless. Coleman opened by laying out a boring case, Galloway followed by blustering through a series of unrelated points in his opening and then he proceeded to testily avoid simple questions from Coleman and Levin. Can't really see how either side came out on top in this snooze-fest...

[Az]

Galloway is good with words, but we already knew that.

[KrazyHorse]

DT