from The Weekly Standard


Do as the French do

And in other low-minded news
involving French-speaking international
diplomacy: France's daily Le
Parisien revealed on December 20 that
one of that country's best-known public
magistrates, Pierre Hontang of Bayonne,
is now under intensive Justice
Ministry scrutiny for his alleged behav-
ior at the Fifth Conference of European
General Prosecutors in Germany this
past May. Hontang attended the gathering
as keynote speaker for a session on
"fundamental principles of ethics for
prosecutors." According to a preliminary
report by a joint task force of
French and German police investigators,
however, Hontang also slipped
away from the conference at least twice,
both times in order to visit a brothel.
And while he is thought the first time
to have used his own money for what
one detective called "activities that are a
little shameful for a magistrate of this
standing," Hontang's return trip was
apparently paid for with a credit card
he'd stolen from a German colleague at
the prosecutors' conference.
"The affair came to light," according
to the Times of London, "after M. Hontang
complained to the owner of the
brothel . . . about the quality of its work.
The owner noticed that he had not paid
with his own credit card and alerted
German police officers."
French justice minister Dominique
Perben has asked the country's Conseil
Sup'rieur de la Magistrature to suspend
M. Hontang pending completion of the
inquiry. "It just wasn't something we
could ignore," a Conseil spokesman
told reporters, "even in France."
That "even in France" part all by
itself makes the whole story worthwhile,
don't you think?

I agree, the "even in France" part is pretty humorous, although if anyone else other than a Frenchman/woman said that, they'd be jumping up and down like their shoes were on fire.