Even in a nation that shrugs off government kickbacks and ghost workers and phantom voters and fraud and graft and political spoils, well, Jack is something of a stand-out.

FRENCH VERDICTS LATEST BLOW FOR CHIRAC

PARIS July 5, 2006 (AP) - A court convicted 38 people Wednesday in a vast party financing scandal centered on Paris City Hall from 1987 to 1993, when Jacques Chirac was mayor. While Chirac enjoys immunity* as France's president and could not be questioned in the case, the verdicts come as the latest blow to the 73-year-old leader's reputation in what is likely his last year in office — and possibly, in politics.

PLAN B
No Longer If, But When

The six-month trial followed a decade-long, politically charged inquiry into alleged kickbacks from building contractors. ... Prosecutors said illicit funds were funneled to Chirac's conservative party, the RPR, which has since been repackaged under a new name and leadership [scil., L'UMP, originally Union pour la Majorité Présidentielle then repackaged as the backronym Union pour un Mouvement Populaire].

Investigators said about 20 public works companies paid more than $7.29 million from 1991 to 1994 to Jean-Claude Mery, an RPR official who claimed to have collected bribes. Before Mery died in 1999, he made a videotape** in which he claimed Chirac was aware of the scheme. Chirac at the time slammed Mery's allegation that he was present when suitcases of cash were handed over, saying he was "profoundly hurt."

The 80-year-old former director of the OPAC housing office, Georges Perol, considered close to Chirac, was convicted of influence trafficking and was given a two-year suspended sentence and fined $25,500.

The court said Perol "acted in perfect knowledge of the purpose of corruption agreements put in place by Jean-Claude Mery, selling his influence in exchange for disbursement of public funds. ... [Perol] attacked the authority of the state, the probity of the administration and the republican equality" of candidates for public housing.

The biggest fine — $76,700 — was reserved for Jacky Chaisaz, a former fundraiser for RPR. He also received a 15-month suspended sentence.

[Many of the sentences were less than what the prosecution sought.] The judges did not explain the softer sentences.

Though it is hard to pick through all the scandals, big and small and middling, that riddle Jack and his government, Pave has followed this particular scandal with some interest. Related posts can be found here and here and here.

Short of a secular miracle, Jack will go from ultra vires to intra vires after April 2007. But truth be told, Jack is already a spent force, he will be an old man (74), and everyone knows him to be culpable. There won't be much sport in media long knives slicing and dicing him in the headlines. And little political advantage when Jack's fall is a fall for all. And for France a convicted Jack is more humiliation than French justice can justify. We will be surprised if the judges -- their prize witness finally in hand -- don't close out this investigation with a whimper. It's just Jack. It's just graft. And it's France.

But we love surprises.

* Though Jack enjoys immunity by the extraordinary circumstance of the presidency, the Cour de cassation has also ruled this immunity stops the clock on prescription, scil., the temporal limitations of enforcement of the law.

** The videotape was made by journalist and TV producer Arnaud Hamelin, who was subsequently placed under formal investigation for "possessing legally confidential material." The case guttered out in December 2001.

PFFT (What is this?): Business as usual 5 | Prosecuting BAU 2½ | Rayonnement français 0