C'mon now. American politicians don't exactly have the market cornered when it comes to sleeze and dishonesty. Sleeze and dishonesty are generic characteristics of nearly every politician on the planet.

Galloway is a blowhard all the time, so it is difficult to suss out whether he is innocent of the...'claims' by Coleman, or bluffing as a defensive tactic.

The more salient point, already mentioned, is why Coleman feels it necessary to go after this marginalised, washed up
politician from Britain.

Answer: 1) Those were his orders from Cheney. 2) Like it always is with these sorts of power mad politicos, Coleman has made it a personal vendetta against Galloway.

Initial accusations smearing Galloway was a time honored Republican tactic for discrediting your political opposition by demonizing them with the whiff of scandal (see #1 above). That was the initial reason for wagging his finger at Galloway. That is the way Republicans take care of the opposition these days. Prez Cheney said 'sick him' and make him the British face of the most vocal opposition to the war on Iraq, and we'll paint him the same way we painted Joseph Wilson (by making him the right wing's poster child for the 'liberal intelligentsia' opposed to the war. As if Wilson were even remotely liberal.

But! Coleman is also a vicious, vengeful Republican in the Rove/Cheney mold. That is why he is currently in the US Senate, and Cheney's lap attack dog on this committee. He is still furious with Galloway, and trying to save face after being so publicly humiliated by him when he appeared before Coleman's Congressional subcommittee.

Which I have to say, was the best political theatre in Washington since the Livingston bombshell on the eve of the Clinton impeachment.