EU Constitution Defeated in France

This is a gloat-free zone, so you will find no inappropriate mirth at the unceremonious rejection of the EU Constitution by the French -- and the stinging repudiation of Jacques Chirac's leadership that the rejection entails.

No, no gloating here -- but certainly a fair amount of relief, even pleasure. French political leadership was in favor of a united Europe as a way to try to compete with and thwart America at every turn. (In fact, support for the EU Constitution was everywhere infected with a bit of anti-US bias). And Jacques Chirac is indubitably a slimeball. In both those senses, it's a good thing that this EU project has been undermined.

And one need not necessarily be a fan of any particular European country to feel dismayed at the prospect of sovereign nations surrendering much of their independence to a bureaucratic elite centered in Brussels, of all places.

Who would have suspected that the ornery French would show such plain, good, even American-style common sense!?