Diminutive French president Nicolas Sarkozy ((B)UMP- Carla Bruni) seems to be channeling America’s Tea Party lately. From the New York Times:

PARIS — President Nicolas Sarkozy has used the crisis over the euro and his relationship with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, to set a potential political trap for the Socialist opposition less than nine months before the French presidential election.

Hoping to show the French that he is a man of stature and responsibility, Mr. Sarkozy is pressing for a constitutional amendment to promote a balanced budget and making it a litmus test of fiscal responsibility for the Socialists, who oppose it.

Mr. Sarkozy has previously floated an idea he calls “the golden rule,” a legal requirement for a balanced budget, and a weak version has passed both houses of Parliament, where his center-right party has a majority. The Socialists voted against it, calling it a political maneuver and a “communications operation.”

The French left has also said “The deficit is the bastard child of the right, a mixture of ideological choices and payoffs for its electoral clients.”

Compare and contrast, in clear idiomatic English, the American left’s response to the balanced-budget-amendment crowd, compliments of California congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Water This):

“The Tea Party can go straight to hell.”

Which political discourse would you rather be part of?