REPORT FROM THE PARIS BUREAU: InstaPundit Paris Correspondent Nelson Ascher emails:

I think we’re all basically misreading Chirac’s recent anti-New Europe declarations in a way that, though not wrong, is not particularly relevant. What is really, really relevant is how angry he still is weeks after all those pro-American letters. His anger is blinding him to his own “gaffes” and that’s as serious as it gets here, right? You can forgive perfidy or backstabbing, but “gaffes” are quite another thing: they’re unforgivable. What does this mean?That the other countries’ revolt against FRANCO-german dirigisme was, for Chirac, his government and our Quai d’Orsay friends, a huge setback, huger than I thought. His anger is its clearest admission. Now is the time to say: hey, Jacques, calm down, here’s some Valium, don’t be angry, don’t lose your class, we still love you.

I think this is right, and I’ll have more on it up over at GlennReynolds.com shortly. As I say in that item, though, I don’t think that it’s time to calm Jacques down quite yet. For him, this has always been as much about the future state of Europe as it is about Iraq. I think he’s just waking up to the fact that at some level the “simplistic” Bush Administration may be playing the same game, and that he’s lost.

Meanwhile, InstaPundit’s other Paris Correspondent, Claire Berlinski, emails:

When Judith and I spoke on the phone last night, we were both trying to put find the right way to describe a particularly unnerving aspect of the anti-American protests: There appears to be something quasi-religious and messianic, even orgiastic, about this latest spasm of anti-modernism and anti-Semitism. . . . I’d like to try to document this aspect of the anti-American movement: Has anyone read interviews with anti-American activists who describe themselves or their cause in a way that suggests that they conceive of their program as an essentially mystical or spiritual one? Would you please forward them my way?

If you’ve got anything especially good, send it to me and I’ll forward it on along.

UPDATE: Hmm. This doesn’t exactly answer Claire’s question, but it’s revealing nonetheless.