But she’s easy to like, and for precisely the reasons that the left-wing crowd bashes her. Let’s start with her name: Veronique is one of the most lovely, feminine names in any language; it rolls off the tongue and pleasures the mind, enticing the imagination with exotic boudoir visions. Compare it to the klutzy Anglocised “Veronica” — noise vs. music.

France itself is a mixed bag, like all countries infected with the socialist disorder that never sank all the way into communism. But, it’s still a bastion of culture, if not freedom. Let’s hope that its own patriots will rescue her.

As for her Americanism, Veronique is one of us as much as any other immigrant can claim to be: she came here for freedom and the opportunity to prosper in the last stronghold of capitalism. We need all the capitalists we can get, so, welcome, dear Veronique. The fact that she’s at least a partial libertarian makes the welcome all the more sincere.

As for Chait and Yglesias, if they’re the best and brightest and funniest that the Left can offer, all I can say is we need an American Idol program for comedians, so we can watch the libertarians walk away with all the prizes.

Warmest regards,
The Kosmik Kid

(Don’t listen to Nathalie, Tom. I’ve already obtained her surrender on the issue of the French, and am now converting her into an economist.)

But, there are cases where this doesn’t work, where nationalistic sentiments become subordinate to reality. The works of Bastiat and de Tocqueville–two French guys–pretty much nailed the portrait, and, any attack on them, in general, would have bystanders asking “why?” While an attack on them because they were French would be derided as a bigoted assault, with no merit. Enter Veronique de Rugy who also has grasp of the big picture, and, it is somehow deemed acceptable to pan her review because she is French and woman? The “race card” is only played when the player has nothing else to say.

When the Democrats are in power, Democrat bloggers attack the French.

They were right about Jerry Lewis; maybe the French are right about everything.

Nativism is the last resort of the person who’s run out of arguments.

I’m not sure I understand the hostility toward someone with a penchant for free market economics. Perhaps it’s just the age old libertarian passion to attack the good because it isn’t the perfect.