Doing the right wing’s dirty work

IT WAS no surprise when Christopher Hitchens and his fellow neo-cons slandered British antiwar leader George Galloway during his North American speaking tour in September. But some of the ugliest attacks on Galloway came from liberals--namely, journalist Greg Palast and LA Weekly commentator Marc Cooper.

These hatchet jobs, directed at the best-known antiwar figure in Britain, were obviously designed to discourage people from turning out to hear Galloway speak.

But they were also about something more--trying to impose political conformity on the antiwar movement by attempting to marginalize a figure from the left, in particular, on the question of how the U.S. occupation has been opposed in Iraq.