What do Dubya and Saddam have in common?

They're both delusional megalomaniacs who think that the world would fall apart without them.

Saddam Hussein believes the United States will have to seek his help to quell the bloody insurgency in Iraq and open the way for U.S. forces to withdraw, his chief lawyer said Sunday.

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"He's their last resort. They're going to knock at his door eventually," the lawyer said. Saddam is "the only person who can stop the resistance against the U.S. troops."

There is no indication U.S. officials have considered seeking his help.

Ah, but it's well known that they already have.

[Saddam's lawyer] quoted Saddam as saying:

"These puppets in the Iraqi government that the Americans brought to power are helpless. They can't protect themselves or the Iraqi people. The Americans will certainly come to me, to Saddam Hussein's legitimate leadership and to the Iraqi Baath Party, to rescue them from their huge quandary."

Although he would not say exactly what Saddam might ask in return for helping, al-Dulaimi said it would not necessarily involve being reinstated as president of Iraq - a nation he ruled brutally and plunged into three devastating wars.

The lawyer suggested, though, that Saddam might be willing to negotiate such help by making the verdict in his trial a bargaining chip.

In other words, the scoundrel wants to save his grubby little neck from the noose. And like a typical politician, no lie is too grand to accomplish his goals.

Saddam predicted Iraq would "flourish within five years," saying that was the time that would be needed for reconstruction that would transform the country into the envy of the region, the lawyer said.

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"The ongoing trial and verdict, which are already decided by Washington, are expected to result in the death penalty," he said.

"The death penalty is political blackmail to pressure President Saddam to help the American forces out of their predicament in Iraq and to rescue it from the mess it created there."

But, unparalleled economic recovery is not all the former dictator promised to deliver.

Al-Dulaimi said Washington also should look to Saddam as the only person who can stop the growing influence of Iran and radical Shiite Muslims in the region.

Pointing to Saddam's 1980-88 war with Iran - a conflict in which the United States and others backed Iraq - he said Saddam served as a counterbalance to Iranian power.

The Bush administration should recognize the "hard reality" that the U.S. invasion of Iraq delivered the mostly secular Arab nation into the hands of Shiites strongly sympathetic to their larger Iranian neighbor, the lawyer said.

"Iran is the enemy of Arabs, Islam and the United States, and the only person who can stand in the face of Iran is Saddam Hussein," he said.

You have to hand it to Saddam, he knows how to capitalize on neocon thirst for Iranian blood. The man will do anything to stay alive.

And no doubt, Dubya will do anything to get what he and his neocon buddies want in the Middle East.