Dedicated to - among others - a few expat bloggers, some words by Norman Geras about their last political hero: George Galloway.

The contrast between the pieces by Baker and Hitchens and the more general coverage of Galloway's posturings is striking. Nothing so clearly reveals the soft, rotten spot at the heart of the dominant left-liberal consensus today than the tenor of that coverage. There are those who are content to treat Galloway as a lovable rogue, and there are those who, even though not finding him that lovable, have allowed themselves to draw satisfaction from his discomfiture of others: Tony Blair, the Labour Party, Republicans in Washington, and so on. That this is a man who, whatever the truth about his financial affairs, stood before Saddam Hussein and sang the latter's praises in the most servile and disgusting way has been no barrier to this reaction.

For, whatever doubt or discredit may hang over George Galloway for that episode, it seems to be less important within the dominant political orthodoxy than his blustering against - his 'standing up to' - political opponents closer to home. These seem to loom larger in the current left-liberal conscience than either the tyrannical monster whom Galloway saluted, or the number of his victims, or the public meaning of Galloway's act of obeisance.
Soft, rotten spot - due in some part, I would say, to unsettled discomforts about who dispatched Saddam Hussein's regime and who, on the other hand, loudly protested against its 'illegal', and apparently too early, demise.

Wake up, guys.