Here is how I suspect things will go today:
1. Respect are holding a press conference before Galloway appears in front of the Senate. They will claim they have evidence that there was a ‘document forging factory’ in Baghdad after the liberation. It will be interesting to see how firm the evidence they present is. Worth remembering that the only defence Galloway has against the documents with his name on is to say they were fakes.
This is a smart move from Respect as the news channels have a long, long wait until Galloway appears in late afternoon/early evening and they will have provided them with a ‘line’ and a talking point as they try to keep the story bubbling.
2. Galloway will repeat the same line in front of the Senate when asked about the documents. “They were fakes, move on to your next question.”
3. The hearing will be short. Remember he is not on trial. Galloway will take the chance to make some rant about the “McCarthyite methods” of the Senate sub-committee. The sub-committee will say the documents are legit. Galloway will say they are fakes and mention Fallujah and Abu Ghraib several times. And that will probably be the end of it.
4. After the hearing Galloway will brief the UK press and say that his name has been cleared, the documents were clearly forged, it is a witch-hunt, he will continue to fight against the war etc.
5. Media will lead on ‘Galloway says documents are forgeries’ with some rather weak comments from a Senator saying “We are sure that the documents are genuine but will look into the issues Mr Galloway has raised”.
6. Not a single question will be raised and therefore the media will not discuss, the real issue which is related to the funding of the Mariam Appeal and the missing financial documentation of Galloway’s political campaign.
I will probably be completely wrong of course.
Update: I was completely right.