Huh? VI

According to the estimable Kenneth R. Timmerman, writing today in National Review:

'Although he had never been elected to public office, [soon-to-be former French foreign minister Dominique de] Villepin has written a political manifesto. It bears the improbable title, "The Gargoyle's Scream," and an even more improbable message. "[H]ow could some of us not feel tempted by nostalgia for a time when France was ruled by an all-powerful state, that had only to appear to be obeyed," he writes.

'His solution for France's agony of powerlessness and self-doubt is not more freedom, but more government — and authoritarian government, at that. Villepin believes that today's Frenchmen and women are yearning for a charismatic leader who, like Napoleon, will "vanquish or die" in pursuit of glory. '

Something about de Villepin has always reminded me of a be-coifed Jean Claude Frollo (from Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris); each is an alchemist in his own way, no?