Is THIS supposed to be the "October" surprise?

Saddam's trial should end and there should be a verdict in 3 weeks. That's the week of the election. I don't think many people will care, though.

"BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A verdict against Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants charged in connection with an anti-Shiite crackdown in the 1980s will be issued by early next month, the chief prosecutor in their trial said Sunday...

When pressed to give a precise date, he said: "In no longer than three weeks."

http://www.rawstory.com/showoutarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fapnews.myway.com%2Farticle%2F20061015%2FD8KP8GPO0.html

It will only serve to remind everyone of the pathetic gain measured against the cost of invading and occupying Iraq.

should remind everyone that we still haven't caught him, yet it helped Bushh.

I suspect the only reason the judge in the case isn't being cleaned up with a sponge is because of his "you were not a dictator" remark.

There is a new judge on the bench who has removed Saddam from the courtroom, if you can call it that, four or five times...

Saddam should be on trial at the Hague if he truly is a war criminal...

I remember reading once that Saddam's trial was illegal under some world-court laws or geneva treaty or something. It had to do with a new government not holding puppet trials of their ex-leaders. Does this strike a bell with anyone? I'd like to have a real reference if it's really an illegal trial.

Democratic candidates to agree with the guilty verdict. These things always help the Republicans. The best way to deal with it is to start talking about it now. I hope K.O. jumps all over this.

First, Saddam is very much "old news" and anyone who would credit B*sh and the GOP with helping get a guilty verdict are going to vote Repub anyway. I don't see how any outcome would do much to swing any undecided voters their way.

Second, even if a guilty verdict was something that would wow and amaze the kool-aide addicts, the three-week time window is awfully tight; that wouldn't give KKKarl much time to announce and spin it into anything useful.

And finally, KKKarl is much more cunning and creative than that. I look for OBL to be finally captured (either in his own Saddam-like foxhole, or DNA evidence of his remains), or perhaps some very scary terror alert (even an attack or near-attack) that takes the spotlight off of Foley and Abramoff and Delay and Ney and Iraq and tries to make everyone afraid to vote for anybody other than a Republican. Whatever the "surprise" they pull out of their collective ass, I honestly don't think too many will fall for it this time, and will see it for the bullshit that it is. But that doesn't mean they won't try.

Somebody on the Republican side did an end-run around KKKarl and leaked the Foley story - which the Republicans had known about for years.

I suspect that this had to do with the lack of response to Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. I suspect that some Republicans got fed up with the inaction. I suspect the newly elected Senator Vitter, for one.

all talk, no walk. They're over confident bullshit artists. They can bluster and bluff and fluff up their votes by a few thousand here and there enough to flip a close election like 2004, but they're utterly unprepared and rudderless against a real groundswell. If they had something for real up their sleeves, they probably shelved it for use in the spring. It might've been the North Korean nuke test--which, if it was, was something that backfired and showed them to be negligent assclowns.

Whatever it was, the Foley scandal caught them with their pants down and their fists pumping and they have nothing that can overwhelm an electorate that's simply tired of their crap. If you don't see a BIG story help them in the next 8 days, then forget about it. It's over. A real surprise takes a minimum of two weeks to gel into real electoral weight. The right timing should've been two weeks ago.

What was the October surprise in 2004?

anyone have any doubts that it would be otherwise?

it would be a real october surprise and a disaster for the bushies if Saddam is found innocent..

Saddam's defense problem is that he's not blaming it on the Dems or Clinton or the media or liberals