You probably missed this story because it has barely been covered, but earlier this month the Iraqi court that is trying Saddam Hussein re-scheduled the dates for announcing its verdict — twice.

An earlier date was bumped to Oct. 16, only to be rescheduled for the current date: Nov. 5. Yup, two days before the U.S. midterm elections.

According to Media Matters, the court explained the first delay by saying it might need to hear more witnesses. The excuse for the second delay was a real howler: The court said it was having difficulty choosing between the death penalty and life imprisonment for Saddam.

As if! There’s no way they’ll give him life.

This is way too perfect. The sensationalism of the headline, “Saddam Is Going to Fry,” will be irresistable to the TV newsers. The verdict will be a strong second lead in the coverage of the elections’ final 48 hours. It will accrue as a win for the president and provide an updraft for Republicans as voting begins.

Not coincidentally, the new date puts the verdict midway into the 72 hours when Republicans deploy their new and highly successful Get Out The Vote strategy of “microtargeting” voters. This technique of calling likely fence-sitters with scary messages tailored to their fears — “the Democrats will let gays marry goats, burn the flag and/or take away your guns” — has been credited with giving Republicans their slim winning margins in the last two election cycles.

And here’s one last non-surprise: Your Liberal Media are pretending to be clueless that there could be any Rovian manipulation behind moving the verdict into the election’s news cycle. In fact, the delayed verdicts have barely made it onto the Old Media radar.