In rank political opportunism, as in comedy, timing is everything.

Let me show you the very definition of "sleazy self-interest":

• Expected first verdict against Saddam Hussein: Nov 5, 2006.


• Date of U.S. midterm elections: Nov 7, 2006.

Coincidence? Oh, please -- you can't possibly be that naive. But here's the best part from the Yahoo piece above:

Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer warned Sunday of worsening violence in Iraq and chaos across the Mideast if the ex-president is sentenced to death at his trial for a crackdown on a Shiite Muslim village in the 1980s.

Oooooooh, a tough moral dilemma -- take a shot at boosting GOP fortunes just before the elections with a "guilty" verdict, but at the expense of increasing violence across the Mideast and perhaps costing the lives of more U.S. troops.

Political opportunism versus more dead soldiers. Grapple, grapple ...