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Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (99134)	5/28/2007 9:09:15 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 173976

Glad you've learned Chirac isn't still running France. ------------------------------- From Sept. 2006: This picture has caused a lot of French fuming. In it, we see Nicolas Sarkozy with George W in the White House. The Interior Minister who is leading the centre-right into next spring's presidential elections, was given the honour of a brief US presidential drop-by last week when he visited Stephen Hadley, the National Security adviser. Bush popped into Hadley's office to shake the Sarko hand and chat for a few minutes as a gesture of gratitude for the Frenchman's friendliness towards the USA (see September 11 post). Sarkozy, whose team negotiated the session and persuaded the White House to release a photograph, was thrilled to be seen as a statesman hobnobbing with the chief. This time next year, he hopes to be doing it again as President of France. But for many in France, including President Chirac, Sarko was guilty of grovelling before the adversary, if not the devil, and the picture compounded the offence. Chirac, who had his own session with Bush at the United Nations this week, was enraged by what he called Sarkozy's lamentable sell-out of his country during his US visit. Sarkozy had broken with the tenets of Gaullism, the doctrine of the UMP party which he leads, by cosying up to the Americans and even going as far as criticising "French arrogance" in a Washington speech. On Monday, Chirac attacked his minister on the radio for "subservience" to the Americans. Privately, he was harsher: "With Tony Blair, we have already had one European leader serving the interests of the Americans in Europe," said Chirac. "We don't need a second one with Sarkozy." The quotes were reported today by Le Canard Enchaîné. Sarkozy's leftwing opponents have used the picture as a weapon to bash the rightwing champion. Ségolène Royal, the Socialist favourite, said there was a difference between alliance with the Americans and alignment with Bush. "My diplomatic position will not consist of going and kneeling down in front of George Bush," said France's would-be first woman president. Laurent Fabius, one of her rivals for the party nomination, called Sarkozy "Bush's new poodle". Sarkozy is betting, however, that anti-Americanism is no longer such a winning ticket as the left and right establishment and media believe. His criticism of Chirac -- made in a Washington speech -- for picking a fight with Bush over the Iraq invasion has raised a few murmurs of agreement. Le Monde, voice of the leftish establishment, and a Radio France commentator, wondered whether France might be reaching the end of a 45-year cycle in which it has defined itself through its opposition to the United States. timescorrespondents.typepad.com