The Times offered this sorry bit of non-evidence: "The Americans indirectly confirmed their electronic reach a few months into the crisis over the Iraq war by telling a senior French military official: 'The relationship between your President and ours is irreparable on the personal level. You have to understand that President Bush knows exactly what President Chirac thinks of him.'"

And what might Bush think of Chirac? Apparently our president's opinion reflects that of other Americans. The authors say Bush routinely refers to the Frenchman as "the Jackass."

The book also says that the catastrophic Madeleine Albright, who helped Bill Clinton supply North Korea's insane communist dictator with nuclear weapons, warned France's U.N. ambassador in the early 1990s that Clinton's administration was spying on his conversations.

'Dirty Old Man' Popular Only in France

One more fun bit relayed by the Times: "The French Embassy in Washington reacted with apoplexy last autumn when it heard that the Paris Tourism Ministry had recruited Woody Allen for a US television commercial campaign to restore France's image.

"The ministry had failed to understand that although Allen was adored in France, he was not popular in the United States, where many people saw him as a 'dirty old man' who had married his adopted daughter. The commercials duly appeared to widespread derision."

Editor's note: