Pave: Mangez des citrons ! III

Le jour 54 de Sarko

To think that I’ve seen him in his underpants.

Then-Jack, Now Ex-Jack,
musing on a more vulnerable Sarko
(Cited in article below.)

The Jack shack, having failed to derail Sarko and having grudgingly resigned themselves to support his candidacy, apparently thought once elected, well, bygones would be bygones.

They have thought wrong.

RULING ELITE ROCKED BY SARKO RAIDS

PARIS July 8, 2007 (Times Online) - In the latest episode of a saga that split France’s last conservative government and threatens to divide the new one, Michèle Alliot-Marie,* the interior minister, is to be questioned over what she knew about a plot to smear Nicolas Sarkozy three years ago in an apparent attempt to prevent him from becoming president.

A retired spymaster, General Philippe Rondot, claimed last week that he had revealed to Alliot-Marie, who was then defence minister, the details of the alleged conspiracy to blacken Sarkozy’s name.

Loyal as she then was to President Jacques Chirac and the prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, who both loathed Sarkozy, she allegedly failed to warn [Sarko] that he was the target of an effort to discredit him.

... When the Clearstream claims surfaced, Sarkozy was incensed. He confronted de Villepin, who was then interior minister, and rebuked him for ordering a counter-espionage service investigation, thus suggesting that there might be something in them.

Sarkozy subsequently said he expected justice to unmask "the lowly tactics of would-be plotters. I want to know who put me on those lists, why and how?" ... Brilliantly, he turned the tables and used the Clearstream scandal to discredit his rival.

We interrupt to say that, without taking a jot away from Sarko's Machiavellian acumen, it hardly requires brillance to outplay France's most revered bad poet and occasional government minister (and this).** Please resume your skim.

The judges now want to establish the extent of de Villepin’s knowledge and whether he kept Rondot’s investigation going long after it was clear the accusations had been fabricated. "The more people hound me, the further we’re getting from the truth," de Villepin told a newspaper yesterday. "I refuse to become a scapegoat, that would be too easy."

Careful not to gloat in public, Sarkozy’s office would say only that he “of course” had no comment to make on a matter in the hands of French justice.

... De Villepin, who underwent 17 hours of questioning by the investigating judges last December, a first for a serving prime minister, is beginning to be seen as the sacrificial victim of the affair. The judges are reported to be close to charging him with conspiring to implicate Sarkozy in the scandal.

Since all the main players have denied their alleged involvement, the first one to turn will sink the holdouts. Because Dom is one of those sensitive types, the sort that does not fare well in a French prison -- well, nobody fares well in French prisons (and here) -- our surmise is, if pushed to fall on his sword for Jack, he will turn state's evidence, give up everybody, and tell all.

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* Former dimmest bulb in the dark Chirac marquee™ -- in the running again in a different government.

** For those who are quick to splutter Dom outplayed America at the UN in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, we would point out that perfidy is not the same as brilliant play. Dom achieved not one of his intended goals in opposing the American coalition: Iraq was liberated, elections held, and for good or ill America is now the big dog in the Middle East, and France counts for little. Arabs see France as a shameless opportunist, a loser -- and a blustering and wilting pretend power. However Iraq plays out, France will get no credit for any good and will be held responsible for much bad. [A pause to quietly assess these claims.] Oh, yes, brilliant play, Dom.

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