Britain's Galloway Turns Into Media Hero
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 19, 2005
Filed at 3:42 p.m. ET

LONDON (AP) -- There is usually no love lost between George Galloway and the British press.
But after the maverick lawmaker's blistering performance before a U.S. Senate committee this week in which he excoriated the Bush administration over Iraq, not even his biggest critics could contain their grudging admiration.

''Galloway: the man who took on America,'' ran a headline in The Independent newspaper on Thursday.

Galloway's combative appearance Tuesday before senators who accused him of taking kickbacks from Saddam Hussein enhanced his status as folk hero among his supporters.

The lawmaker is known, even in the highly articulate world of British politics, for his memorable turns of phrase. On Tuesday, he called the panel of senators a ''lickspittle Republican committee'' and accused them of ''the mother of all smoke screens.''

Upon his return Wednesday, he was given a standing ovation by hundreds of people at a rally in London.

''He blasted the whole of the U.S. Senate,'' said Abdul Khaliq Mian, a member of Respect, the anti-war party founded by Galloway.

Galloway's no-holds-barred testimony won widespread praise in a country where many accuse Prime Minister Tony Blair's government of taking a supine approach to relations with the United States.

''In one hour, George Galloway has shown how to do what a succession of British ministers ... have conspicuously failed to do: to stand up to American bullying and mendacity,'' reader Andy Bailey wrote in a letter to the editor of the Guardian.

Last week, the Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs investigation subcommittee released documents that it said showed that Galloway and other international figures received valuable oil allocations -- in Galloway's case, allegedly 20 million barrels' worth between 2000 and 2003 -- from Saddam as a reward for opposition to U.N. sanctions on Iraq.

In his testimony in Washington, Galloway vehemently denied the accusations and accused the committee of maligning him before giving him a chance to defend himself.

''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,'' Galloway told committee chairman Sen. Norm Coleman.

Even observers skeptical of Galloway's belligerent manner and talent for self-promotion acknowledged the skill of his hard-hitting attack.

The Times marveled at Galloway's ''gift of the Glasgow gab, a love of the stage and an inexhaustible fund of self-belief.''

Galloway's testimony was also picked up by the Arab press, with Egypt's pro-government Al-Ahram newspaper giving front-page treatment to his declaration that he had met Saddam ''exactly the same number of times as Donald Rumsfeld.''

A former factory worker and amateur boxer, the pugnacious Glaswegian nicknamed ''Gorgeous George'' has spent decades honing his man-of-the-people image.

In 1994 he told Saddam: ''Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability.'' Galloway later said he had been referring to the Iraqi people, not their leader.

As a left-leaning Labour legislator, he opposed sanctions and then military action against Iraq. He was expelled from the party in 2003 after urging British soldiers not to fight.

He responded by launching his anti-war party and running again for Parliament, unseating Labour lawmaker Oona King in the London constituency of Bethnal Green and Bow on May 5.

''I think I won the battle of public opinion and I am going to continue my work,'' Galloway told The Associated Press on Wednesday. ''My battle continues to try and force the British government to withdraw our soldiers from Iraq, where they should never have been, where too many have been killed and where they are in grave danger.''

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Britain-Rebel-Lawmaker.html