(...) his first extravagant holidays in New England where he is to meet George Bush this weekend, and was seen jogging in a T-shirt with the slogan "I am an American agent" (...) He is not embarrased to flaunt his expensive tastes and rich friends but rather seeks to legitimise them in line with celebrity spectacle. (...) Sarkozy's Libyan intervention "is really the sort of behaviour one would expect from despots. It makes George Bush pale by comparison" according to Ulrich Kelber. (...)

Paul Gillespie (World editor ), Irish Times 11-08-07.

(...) It is hard to keep a level head when you are surrounded by sycophants. Or perhaps we should say Sarkophants. Fawning politicians and journalists could yet be the downfall of Nicolas Sarkozy. (...) This banana republic-style barrage has alas become de rigueur since Sarkozy's election. L'Express magazine's cover story on "Why he fascinates" reveals a jewel of Sarkophancy. (..) The portrait that emerges from Reza's book is Sarkozy as France knows him: boyish, cynical, attracted by all that glitters, vain and without a trace of self-doubt. (...)

Lara Marlowe, Irish Times 24-08-07.

(...) Mr Sarkozy's adherence to the US line on Iran is symbolic of a profound realignment in French foreign policy. (...) The US undersecretary of state, Nicholas Burns, said in Paris this summer: "we have no better ally than France". The new Franco American harmony is most striking regarding Israel. "I have the reputation of being a friend of Israel and so I am", Mr Sarkozy told French ambassadors this week. (...) General de Gaulle must be turning in his grave. (...)

Laura Marlowe, Irish Times 01-09-07.

Michel Rocard: "Le président Sarkozy m'a téléphoné personellement, c'est un honneur et une rareté (quel honneur?) (...) Le déjeûner qu'il avait eu l'imprudence de faire pendant la campagne électoral avec le président Bush, laissant dire la presse qu'il avait condamné l'hostilité de la France à l'intervention en Irak. Il a très bien compris que c'était un danger majeur. Il a gommé tout ça en nommant Bernard Kouchner" (lequel est pro Bush et pro Guerre en Irak) (pauvre Rocard!) (Bush: the man who, with Blair's help, kills more Iraqis than Saddam Hussein and more Americans than Ben Laden)

Francois Bayrou: "l'étalage de la préférence du point de vue de la politique internationale, au bénéfice des Etats Unis, et puis l'étalage dans la vie, de choix qui sont au bénéfice de ceux qui ont le plus d'argent, le plus de notoriété, cela ne ressemble pas au modèle politique français tel que les français l'attendent et le veulent."

Last month Bernard Kouchner, the hawkish new French foreign minister, insisted that "we must expect the worst" and "the worst is war" - while the UN's chief weapons inspector, warn against the " neo-crazies" pushing for an attack after 700000 had died in Irak.