Galloway to Hitchens: you're a drink-soaked former-Trotskyite popinjay

[Cocoa]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1486417,00.html

<snip>

Before the hearing began, the MP for Bethnal Green and Bow even had some scorn left over to bestow generously upon the pro-war writer Christopher Hitchens. "You're a drink-soaked former-Trotskyist popinjay," Mr Galloway informed him. "Your hands are shaking. You badly need another drink," he added later, ignoring Mr Hitchens's questions and staring intently ahead.

"And you're a drink-soaked..." Eventually Mr Hitchens gave up. "You're a real thug, aren't you?" he hissed, stalking away.

More…

[tridim]

1. LOL :)

"drink-soaked former-Trotskyite popinjay".. It's amazing how easily that rolls off the tongue. Perfect description of Hitchens, even though I don't know what a popinjay is.

[Pepperbelly]

4. popinjay is a great word...

look it up. Seriously.

[malaise]

11. Popinjay is a classic English word

A vain or conceited person, one given to pretentious displays.

It's a serious insult from a Brit.
<snip>
This deeply insulting word is now rather dated or literary. A good example can be found in Joseph Conrad’s short story The End of the Tether of 1902: “When he looked around in the club he saw only a lot of conceited popinjays too selfish to think of making a good woman happy”.

Dictionaries say a popinjay was also at one time the usual name for a parrot, and in that lies the origin of the derogatory term. What could be more gaudily and squawkingly in your face than a parrot? What more perfect term for an empty chatterer, fop or coxcomb? Who’s a pretty boy, then?
------------------
Rather a nice word to use for the 'presstitutes' and impression managers.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-pop2.htm

[leftchick]

25. Well that certainly fits Mr. sock in the pants chimp**

"A vain or conceited person, one given to pretentious displays"

Mr. flyboy wannabe. Mr. dress up boy! LOL!

[tibbiit]

27. Thanks for the definitions!!

And the addition of parrot is too excellent!
(we have a parrot in real life and can identify)

I really love to collect words that paint such pictures. Popinjay is a great word. I believe my parents called each other popinjay, but at that time it was affectionate... 50 years later the dictionary definitions fit them.lol
:)
tib

[bunny planet]

51. just substitute former -cokehead for former Trotskyite and you've got

drink-soaked, former-cokehead popinjay President.
Now who could that be.

[pbartch]

61. These are my FAV parts from that article (which I'm sending to EVERBODY!!)

Even so, Mr Galloway was in his element, playing the role he relishes the most: the little guy squaring up for a fight with the establishment.

For these purposes, Senator Coleman served symbolically to represent all the evil in the world - the entire Republican party, the conscience of George Bush, the US government and the British government, too: no wonder his weak smile looked so nauseous.

"I gave my heart and soul to stop you committing the disaster that you did commit in invading Iraq ... senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong," Mr Galloway told him.

And yet for all his anti-establishment credentials, Mr Galloway is as practised as any of his New Labour enemies at squirming away from awkward questions. Under scrutiny by Senator Levin, he deployed a classic example of the bait-and-switch technique that is the government minister's best defence in difficult questioning.

But Mr Galloway Goes To Washington had never really been an exercise in clarifying the facts. It was an exercise in giving Norm Coleman, and, by extension, the Bush administration, a black eye - mere days after the bloody nose that the Respect MP took credit for having given Tony Blair. And it went as well as Mr Galloway could have wished.

---------------------------------------------------------
no wonder his weak smile looked so nauseous..........I LOVE IT!!

Coleman is a squirmly little sob isn't he? You DUers.......vote him out of office!!

[Vladimir]

2. That is the best bit of the whole thing!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Decay]

3. Awsome!

Well fucking A!

[Pithy Cherub]

5. That was the cherry on top!

:rofl:

[tjdee]

6. A popinjay! How cute is that!

Man, you'd never hear Dennis Kucinich saying that.

Plus, it has the benefit of being true.

[brainshrub]

7. Definition of a "Popinjay" for the trolling freepers:

http://www.biology-online.org/dictionary/popinjay
popinjay

1. (Science: zoology) The green woodpecker. A parrot. "The pye and popyngay speak they know not what." (Tyndale)

2. A target in the form of a parrot.

3. A trifling, chattering, fop or coxcomb. "To be so pestered with a popinjay."

Origin: OE. Popingay, papejay, OF. Papegai, papegaut; cf. Pr. Papagai, Sp. & Pg. Papagayo, It. Pappagallo, LGr, NGr.; in which the first syllables are perhaps imitative of the bird's chatter, and the last either fr. L. Gallus cock, or the same word as E. Jay, F. Geai. Cf. Papagay.



###

In other-words Galloway called Hitchens an "Arrogant, failed-radical, drunk hack who does not understand what he's parroting."

[chalky]

42. You realize you'll need to define "fop" and "coxcomb" now.

EOM

[Hissyspit]

54. Fredddy The Pig! I haven't read him in 35 years!

[cestpaspossible]

8. I guess even all that alcohol can't keep the truth from hurting

:rofl:

[proud patriot]

9. Wow

:D

[applegrove]

10. There is something there with this person. He is either the British

version of Chalaby or a complete innocent.

[RoyGBiv]

12. WHY!?!?!?

WHY DO WE NOT HAVE PUBLIC SERVANTS WITH THIS MUCH COURAGE!?!?!?

Pardon my shouting, but something snapped in me today as I sat at my desk and watched this man bore a new set of holes in the American government's ass.

Where IS Thomas Paine. Where is Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams? Where the FUCK are they? Does no one in our Congress have courage to speak the truth in the harshest most severe terms possible. NO ONE!?!?!?

Damnitalltohell, why in gopod's name does it take a British man -- ya know, the people we rebelled against for oppression -- to come over here and tell US a thing or two about what bastards we have become.

WHY!?!?!?!?

[Flying Dream Blues]

16. You hit it right on the head! nt

[applegrove]

19. You are correct. You know.. when things have been going bad..it

is hard to believe good news when it suddenly appears. I hope he is a big hearted heroe.

[TyeDye75]

41. Wasnt Tom Paine born over here too?

or have I got my basic US history embaressingly wrong

nevermind I just googled him, he was.... but I think his heart was definately in America

[tavalon]

48. They're all here

in the hallowed halls of DU.

[Pacifist Patriot]

53. I've figured it out.

People with that much courage can't get elected here. I'd have absolutely no problem telling Republican congressmen and the President that they are a bunch of lying, murdering narrow-minded thugs who might as well flush the Constitution down the toilet as much respect as they give it. I've been told I write well. I have no fear of public speaking. I'm intelligent enough to grasp a problem quickly if I'm not familiar with it already. I detest being surrounded by "yes men" and appreciate opposing points of view.

BUT

I do not have the wealth necessary to seed a campaign.
I have obligations to my husband and children.
Voters are swayed by experience and I have not held public office since I was in student government.

I know countless people like me who would do a hell of a job representing their constituents in Washington but just don't fit the expected mold. The man who challenged in my district in 2004 was slaughtered because he "didn't have experience." Rich coming from an incumbent who started his political career as a U.S. Rep after being a mediocre doctor.

[RoyGBiv]

58. I think you are correct ...

And this is what we need to change. How to do that is another question entirely.

[mrfrapp]

13. Quote

"And yet for all his anti-establishment credentials, Mr Galloway is as practised as any of his New Labour enemies at squirming away from awkward questions. Under scrutiny by Senator Levin, he deployed a classic example of the bait-and-switch technique that is the government minister's best defence in difficult questioning."

Bait-and-switch? I've listened to that exchange several times now (the hearing is on a continuous loop on a BBC channel in the UK) and I'm puzzled as what this bait-and-switch might be. What I heard was a honest answer to a loaded question. That Galloway refused to give a yes or no answer to a "do you still beat your wife" styled question is to his credit.

[RoyGBiv]

17. What it means ...

"Bait-and-switch" is being used here as a euphemism for not falling for the bullshit tactic employed by Senator Levin to change the subject.

[chalky]

43. Bait-and-switch my ass.

Demanding a yes/no answer to a question that's not about a FACT but an EMOTION is garbage.

I saw that slimy little exchange and the only thing I wished that he'd done that he didn't do was call them on THAT.

[blondeatlast]

14. I can't wait to read James Wolcott on this one! Hysterical!

Watch this space for Wolcott:

http://jameswolcott.com/

[matcom]

15. i now OFFICIALLY want to marry Galloway

and i'm straight!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Goldmund]

21. ME TOO.

Can we get some sort of a three-way?

[Just Me]

30. Nope. You can't have him. I am second in line (next to xultar).

Hands off!!! :grr:

:bounce:

He IS something else, though,...isn't he.

[donsu]

59. I agree - I wish I could thank him in person

for speaking truth to power. He can come to tea at my place anytime. I'd even bake a goodie with all natural ingrediants.

[Taxloss]

18. Ouch. Popinjay is a serious insult, laughs aside.

Galloway is a bit thirsty himself, though.

[Generic Other]

20. "the whole lickspittle lot of them"

best description of our so-called government I have heard in some time.

[baldguy]

22. The more I hear George Galloway speak, the more I like him!

George Galloway - American Hero!

[KG]

23. hitch is a 'former-Trotskyist'?

who woulda thunk it.

[RandomKoolzip]

28. Yup, just like all the Neo-cons in DC....

And just like Grover Norquist.

[KG]

33. funny how they're commies till they start to make some money.

[Logansquare]

65. Don't forget David Horowitz, a former Marxist

Not too surprising, since many of them are fascists when you scratch the surface.

[Just Me]

32. *LOL* they assert that they are former liberals,....per the rules

of a neo-Machiavellian professor. That would be the rules that assert it's perfectly acceptable to misrepresent what you really are, what you really intend by bullshitting and lying to others.

[KamaAina]

24. Almost makes me want to register for Slate's The Fray

what they call their message board, just so I could post "drink-soaked former-Trotskyite popinjay" to the "Fighting Words" (Hitch's column) Fray!

[RetroLounge]

26. Oh man, this guy is good!

"You're a real thug, aren't you?" he hissed, stalking away...

Poor Hitchens, but that what you get when you back a war based on A PACK OF LIES.

RL

[6000eliot]

29. Couldn't have happened to a bigger jerkoff

I never even liked this asshole when he was supposedly on "our" side.

[alcibiades_mystery]

60. I believe the term you're looking for is "tosser"

or, of course, "wanker."

Hitchens being one of the primary wankers wanking away in our wanked out cultural landscape. When you see a wanker, sort 'em oot.

[qanda]

31. Boy, I sure needed a good laugh and that one was priceless

:rofl:

[reality based]

34. An elegant way to say "Shove it!"

If they were paying attention, Democrats today could have learned a little about how to handle the malicious press as well as Republicans. We witnessed a masterful performance that has rarely been given in modern American politics-- especially since every word used now has to be run by a focus group and three consultants.

[malaise]

35. That's the point

He was spontaneous and self-made not coached - additionally George has convictions.

[tsuki]

36. Can anyone here imagine Bush or any of his lickspittle

traveling to the UK to testify in a Parlimentary investigation of the "Blood for Oil" scandal? The image just doesn't click.

[bvar22]

37. I would LOVE to go sit on the Capitol Steps with a sign that says:

LICK SPITTLE POPINJAYS
the whole LOT of YOU!

on the other side:

The MOTHER of ALL SMOKESCREENS
lives in this building.

I am an ASHAMED PATRIOT!
GOD help us ALL!

[newfaceinhell]

38. LOL....he had a REALLY good day!

:rofl:

[TyeDye75]

39. Galloway is as powerful in attack

as 10 Sean Hannitys, and he is armed witht the truth

you gotta like it

[wicket]

40. Beautiful, just BEAUTIFUL

:D

[DeaconBlues]

44. My God....

Can we get rid of Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution and make this man president?

[lateo]

45. Check out this photoshop of Galloway.

[Catherine Vincent]

46. LOL. That comment couldn't have happened to a better guy.

Galloway sounds like a bad mofo!

[smoogatz]

47. Reminds me of speaker's corner

in Hyde Park. Love it.

[librechik]

49. Ya gotta admire the Scots

they are the best ranters in existence, with the best curse words!

[ooglymoogly]

50. hitch to a gin soaked tea

lol...i love this guy

[atommom]

52. What would it take to get some Dems in Congress with that

command of the English language? Maybe if Congress were more like Parliament, they'd get better at using colorful insults... and the Repubs might be forced to say something other than the word-for-word-party-line-statement-of-the-week.

[dooner]

55. Amen

I've often pondered the proper insult for Hitchins. This is it!

[Joe Chi Minh]

56. "... and useful idiot",

Hitchens, himself, added to the quote mentioned in the Daily Mirror today; George's full encomium, according to Hitchens being: "drink-sodden, ex-Trotskyist popinjay and useful idiot". I marvelled too at that pointed and pithy expression "useful idiot"

To Hitchen's credit with the concluding witticism of his own: "some of which is untrue...". Even neocons, I suppose, must be allowed to fantasise about limitations on their shortcomings.

[dogday]

57. In other-words Mr. Hichens, you reek of booze

[glitch]

62. Hitchens needs more blunt talk - maybe he'll get some help while he still

has some brain cells.

[Nothing Without Hope]

63. Love this bit on Rumsfeld - another carefully buried fact that WE

know, like the fact that the neocon cartel are responsible for Iran's nuclear technology, but we have not yet managed to make common knowledge:

"I met Saddam Hussein exactly the same number of times as Donald Rumsfeld met him," Mr Galloway went on. "The difference is that Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns, and to give him maps the better to target those guns."

[atommom]

64. kicking for the evening popinjays

[Hardrada]

66. And fops

Like Yrs truly!

And don't forget the coxcombs. Some of those around too!

[atommom]

67. But not the bampots and the plonkers. They just wouldn't get it.