Saddam Trial: Outdoing Ringling Bros.

The upcoming trial of Saddam Hussein may be well managed inside the courtroom, but outside ... well, that is going to be a painful circus with nearly two dozen twisted ringmasters.

The Sacto Bee quotes Michael Scharf, a former State Dept. lawyer who helped train the Iraqi judges and prosecutors for the case:

"I think it's inherently going to be a circus," Scharf said. "Inside the courtroom, the tribunal will do everything possible to maintain decorum. Outside the courtroom, you're going to have al Jazeera broadcasting everything Ramsey Clark says against the United States."

Saddam has 20 lawyers defending him, and none of them are doing it because they're adverse to publicity. We've seen Clark's vile spew; multiply that by 20, and you'll get an idea of the anti-American grandstanding that's likely to go on.

No wonder they're pushing for Saddam to be tried on every single charge against him, instead of being tried, sentenced and executed after the first trial, which covers just a portion of the man's crimes against his nation and humanity.