27th May 2005, 8:21 PM
I'm pretty sure that Palpatine lost to Mace Windu on purpose in order to push Anakin over the edge. As you'll recall, just a short while later he went toe-to-toe with Yoda and exhibitted none of the qualities shown in his fight with Windu. If Palpatine was overpowering Windu, Anakin probably would not have helped him.
Sometimes you get the scorpion.