In praise of Gorgeous George **Updated**

He came, he saw, he conquered --then he went back home and made a fool of himself.  British MP George "Gorgeous George" Galloway, who socked it to the Senate last year, is currently locked in the "Big Brother" house on the British reality TV show of that name.  Told to act like an animal, Galloway, according to the Guardian, "got on all fours and pretended to lick milk from the cupped hands of the once-famous television actor Rula Lenska. She rubbed the "cream" from his "whiskers" and stroked his head and behind his ears."

Transcript is at the end of the story linked above, don't miss it, or these pictures.  Looks like George Galloway is more Al Sharpton than Tony Benn.  I guess if I want a leftist hero, I'm going to have to stick with Hugo.

(Originally posted July 2006) No, I'm not talking about the "original showman of professional wrestling."  I refer instead to the newly elected M.P. for Bethnal Green and Bow, George Galloway, who after being kicked out of Tony Blair's Labour Party for being too anti-war, booted the Labour incumbent and came back to Parliament as an Independent.  Listening to him lose his cool on election night was one of the joys of watching BBC coverage on C-Span; his delicious Scottish burr soaring to new heights of invective and lows of bitterness. 

The rest of America got a chance to meet Galloway after Senator Norm (going to get his butt kicked by Al Franken) Coleman charged Galloway with aiding and abetting Saddam Hussein, charges Galloway has already beaten in Britain.  Galloway leapt at the chance to testify in Washington.  He came, he saw, he conquered.  Now, he's cashing in with a U.S. speaking tour where he'll make more money than he ever could have squeezed from Saddam.  As Margaret Thatcher said, "it's a funny old world."

Sometimes politics is great theater.  Sometimes, as Michael Waldman writes in his book/CD of great Presdiential speeches "My Fellow Americans,"  it "gives us the chance to hear for ourselves how,in our best moments, our leaders have challenged our ideas, stirred our hearts, and moved our nation."