The White House denies that it engineered things so that Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death just in time for the mid-term elections. I doubt that the verdict will make that much difference to the Republicans’ fortunes. There was no prospect of Saddam Hussein being found anything other than guilty, so it was only a matter of waiting for the verdict to be delivered. I would be inclined to argue the other way. Saddam’s loyalists have already been out on the streets threatening vengeance. Any ensuing violence would surely not be to the Republicans’ advantage, as it would only reinforce the point that Iraq is in a state of shambolic lawlessness. In any case, most Americans’ views on the war are already settled one way or another, and therefore not likely to be swayed by a verdict that was widely predicted and expected.
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November 10th, 2006 at 11:58 am
Did you hear Malcolm Rifkind refer to this on Question Time last night?