Commentary - With Sarkozy, conservatives discover new-found love of France

Could supporters of a steadfast and muscular transatlantic Alliance ask for anything more out of this week's state visit by the new French president, the peripatetic and invigorating Nicolas Sarkozy?

Monsieur Sarkozy is a breath of fresh air. He – for lack of a better phrase – "gets it." Unlike his predecessor – the corrupt and cynical Jacques Chirac -- Sarkozy realizes that despite the two country's erstwhile political disagreements, France and America are inherent allies due to our centuries-long shared commitment to the ideals of liberty and individual rights.

Sarkozy's two-day visit to the United States this week was a whirlwind tour aimed at repairing Franco-American relations, regrettably frayed due to differences surrounding the Iraq war. "The French people love the American people; that is the truth and nothing but the truth," Sarkozy effused with President Bush standing by his side at a news conference on the grounds of Mount Vernon, the historic home of George Washington.

Looking to the future, Sarkozy had a friendly, 15-minute phone call with Hillary Clinton (he has previously met with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Republican candidate John McCain). Hoping to reform France's onerous labor laws, he met with American captains of industry to encourage them to invest in his country.

He had breakfast with prominent Jewish leaders, concerned about his the troubling rise of French anti-Semitism. Sarkozy has repeatedly expressed France's support for Israel and backs Bush's efforts to place new sanctions on Iran.

While Sarkozy, like Chirac, opposed the war in Iraq, he has committed France to seeing the fledgling government there succeed, rather than continue the obstructionist polices of his predecessor.

"We had a difference of opinion with your great country over whether or not I should have used military force to enforce U.N. demands," Bush said, emphasizing that today there is no "difference of opinion now that a struggling democracy wants help from those of us who live in the comfort of free societies."

Throughout history, French governments have shown themselves to be at odds with broader American foreign policy goals, but their at-times obstructionist and obnoxious behavior is hardly implacable.

Sarkozy's election and his continued high approval ratings demonstrate that seemingly intractable disputes between nations are anything but. It was not long ago that, at the instigation of Representatives Walter Jones, R-NC, and Bob Ney, formerly R-OH who is now in federal prison, the congressional cafeterias had replaced their French fries and French toast with "Freedom Fries" and "Freedom Toast."

In 2004, National Review political reporter John J. Miller -- ignoring critical French support for the American colonies in their war of independence against the British Empire – published a book entitled, "Our Oldest Enemy: A History of America's Disastrous Relationship With France." Boycotting French products and deriding the French as "Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys" became a pastime on right-wing talk radio and blogs.

But in their praise for the new French president, do not conservative French-bashers detect a bit of their own intellectual inconsistency? Sarkozy, after all, did not emerge from nowhere, and his pro-American sentiments are long-held and widely known.

When the French people elected Sarkozy, they sent the signal that, among other changes in French policy, they wanted improved relations with the United States. Disagreement over one aspect of the War on Terror – the decision to topple Saddam Hussein -- does not indicate a hatred for "freedom" or sympathy with those who want to destroy the United States and its allies.

Conservatives who fatuously called for gastronomical (and, in more severe cases, political and economic) revenge against the French now seem to have quite a bit of egg – call it, "Freedom Soufflé" -- on their faces.

Examiner columnist James Kirchick is an assistant editor of The New Republic. He can be reached at jkirchick@tnr.com.

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