Jacques of all trades

It's nice that Andrew Sullivan is being all reasonable lately, defending Dick Durbin and attacking the more loony theocon wing of the Republican party. But his zeal to get in a quick dig at the perfidious French leads him astray:

Remember how Chirac and other Euro-creeps in France used the tale of the "Polish plumber" replacing French drainage experts to argue against free labor markets in Europe.

Which gets everything backwards. The Polish plumber meme was used to oppose the European Constitution. Chirac, and presumably others grouped under the term "Euro-creep," were for the Constitution, and therefore avoided talking about Polish plumbers at all. And we're not sure why Sully links to one particular blog's take on that Polish ad, since news coverage of it was everywhere. Yesterday. But he is showing good taste in reading Slugger O'Toole:

THE IRA'S FUTURE: Mick Fealty looks into his crystal ball for the future of terrorism in Ireland.

Our prediction: there's an epistle coming from Provincetown on the similarities between Iraq and Northern Ireland. And we're ready for that.