Hitchens is on Fire

Ridiculous British MP George Galloway garnered a lot of headlines with his strong showing against the in-over-his-head Norm Coleman last week. His sidestepping was an impressive gambit in responding to the charges of a neophyte. But a bit of history, some scotch, a backbone and a brain could easily have dressed him down for all the world to see. Unfortunately, Christopher Hitchens isn't a U.S. Senator. Moneymaker:

TO THIS DAY, George Galloway defiantly insists, as he did before the senators, that he has "never seen a barrel of oil, owned one, bought one, sold one, and neither has anybody on my behalf." As a Clintonian defense this has its admirable points: I myself have never seen a kilowatt, but I know that a barrel is also a unit and not an entity. For the rest, his defense would be more impressive if it answered any charge that has actually been made. Galloway is not supposed by anyone to have been an oil trader. He is asked, simply, to say what he knows about his chief fundraiser, nominee, and crony. And when asked this, he flatly declines to answer. We are therefore invited by him to assume that, having earlier acquired a justified reputation for loose bookkeeping in respect of "charities," he switched sides in Iraq, attached himself to a regime known for giving and receiving bribes, appointed a notorious middleman as his envoy, kept company with the corrupt inner circle of the Baath party, helped organize a vigorous campaign to retain that party in power, and was not a penny piece the better off for it. I think I believe this as readily as any other reasonable and objective person would. If you wish to pursue the matter with Galloway himself, you will have to find the unlisted number for his villa in Portugal.

I've said it before and I will say it again: The mysteries of Iraq, WMD, Curveball, France, Russia, UNSCOM-UNMOVIC will be revealed through the Oil-for-Food scandal. When all is said and done, it will likely occupy prime real estate on page D23 of the NYT, but it will be documented. Follow the money. Meanwhile, can we get someone with more gravitas to run the investigation than Norm Coleman????

Read this whole Hitchens piece and marvel. Like VDH, the guy knows his history and his analysis and skill are simply unavailable in most of the MSM.