THE NEW EUROPEAN CONSTITUTION is further evidence of European decadence. David Frum writes on June 15 of former French president Valery Giscard D’Estaing, chairman of the European Union’s constitutional convention:

"`I tried to play a little bit the role that Jefferson played, which was to instill leading ideas into the system,’ [Giscard] said of his 16-month adventure in producing the first draft of a constitution for Europe. ‘Jefferson was a man who wrote and produced elements that consolidated the Constitution.’"

Jefferson, of course, had nothing to do with the Constitution; he drafted the Declaration of Independence, but he was in France during the Constitutional Convention. Mr. Frum's comment:

"Now look: The U.S. Constitution is the most famous constitutional document on planet Earth. Giscard is the man charged with the biggest constitutional job of our decade. He is, as he often points out, a highly intelligent man of considerable learning. What on earth does it say about him that he cannot be bothered to master the difference between the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution? What does it say about the political milieu in which he moves that there is nobody there to catch him on his error?"

American politicians don't pretend to be intellectuals (with a notorious exception we all remember), but French politicians do. Apparently it is indeed just pretending.

[ http://php.indiana.edu/~erasmuse/w/03.06.16b.htm ]

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