|
US tour beckons for Galloway
HIS bristling, chest-out performance at the usually soporific US Senate last week gave Americans their first taste of political debate, Dundee-style.  Now, it appears, the United States wants more of the indefatigable 'Gorgeous' George Galloway. The maverick Respect MP is being offered a potentially lucrative lecture circuit deal in the US following his appearance before the Senate's permanent select subcommittee on investigations. Galloway's compelling and memorable rebuttal of accusations that he profited from the Iraq Oil-for-Food programme led to him being contacted immediately afterwards by American promoters. They believe Galloway's bombastic rhetoric could electrify campuses across the country. While the details have not yet been finalised, the deal could see Galloway making appearances at America's Ivy League universities, including Harvard, Princeton and Yale. Galloway could expect to command a fee of around £5,000 per lecture on current rates, to add to the £140,000 he already earns through his MP's salary and as a newspaper columnist. A spokesman for Galloway confirmed: "He is being asked to do a lecture tour in the States which will be done pretty quickly. We were called by a promoter in the USA. If it happens, he will do a series of paid-for lectures, but he will also do some free ones as well." The deal is just one spin-off from the former Glasgow Kelvin MP's performance last week, which brought him to the attention of the world for the first time, provoking admiration and horror in equal measure. Galloway's Westminster office was deluged with nearly 3,000 e-mails within 24 hours of his appearance before the committee. He received requests for contributions from media outlets across the world, including Bulgaria, Italy and New Zealand. In the US, his performance at the usually sedate Senate hearing drew gasps and giggles of astonishment. The episode has now considerably raised Galloway's profile, especially in the USA, greatly increasingly his earning power. One media commentator in Washington last week commented: "It was the best tongue-lashing since US Army counsel Joseph Welch excoriated Senator Joseph McCarthy over his witch hunt directed at one of Welch's law firm associates who had been a member of the Lawyer's Guild: 'You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?'" Posted by: Seafarious 2005-05-23 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=119778 |