Hitch Socks It to Gorgeous George

Christopher Hitchens, living contradiction to the notion that humor is dead among liberals, takes on "Gorgeous" George Galloway, darling of the International Left, in, of all publications, the Weekly Standard. Reflecting his impeccable Britishness, Hitch concludes the following about his target:

Perhaps I may be allowed a closing moment of sentiment here? To the left, the old East End of London was once near-sacred ground. It was here in 1936 that a massive demonstration of longshoremen, artisans, and Jewish refugees and migrants made a human wall and drove back a determined attempt by Sir Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts to mount a march of intimidation. The event is still remembered locally as "The Battle of Cable Street." That part of London, in fact, was one of the few place in Europe where the attempt to raise the emblems of fascism was defeated by force.

And now, on the same turf, there struts a little popinjay who defends dictatorship abroad and who trades on religious sectarianism at home. Within a month of his triumph in a British election, he has flown to Washington and spat full in the face of the Senate. A megaphone media in London, and a hysterical fan-club of fundamentalists and political thugs, saw to it that he returned as a conquering hero and all-round celeb. If only the supporters of regime change, and the friends of the Afghan and Iraqi and Kurdish peoples, could manifest anything like the same resolve and determination.

Ensconced in these sort of remarks, however, Hitch doesn't spare his readers a wealth of information. The whole thing is worth a read.

[Cross-posted at Between Worlds]

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