As we've argued elsewhere, in any election, to pick the winners, follow the money. If you lost money, well, you shouldn't be betting on the workings of the Holy Ghost in the first place.

Jack, the humanist king of France, looked in the paperbag of his heart and fished up warmed over blandishments, which he had his office put into a nice memo to His Holiness:

"I send Pope Benedict XVI my warmest congratulations and best wishes for the high mission that has just been given to him at the head of the Catholic church," Chirac said in a statement released by his office.

"France, true to its history and the principles that dictate its actions, will pursue the dialogue [like this and this] of trust that it has always had with the Holy See, in particular with respect to the joint struggles for peace, justice, solidarity and human dignity," Chirac said.

You can drop the Pope a sincere message at: benedictxvi@vatican.va

Somebody send Jack some vaseline to prop up his hopes. But I hear the new pope is not into this stuff. Bad Jack! Bad!

"...joint struggles for peace, justice, solidarity and human dignity"

If they had any guts and believed their stuff is of any relevance, they'd demand right now! that the new pope publishes Communist Manifesto as a new encyclica, or at least some Gramsci mixed with Derrida and that Bolivar was first in queue of candidates of prospective saints.