GOP Says Hillary Wants "Socialized Health Insurance"? How Gauche

"Mr. Giuliani invoked Ms. Royal to imply that Democrats, especially Mrs. Clinton, would bring about 'socialized' health insurance. He's leveled that charge before, but the French connection gives it a sort of...je ne sais quoi."

Sarah Wheaton's Wednesday posting at the Times' political blog ("The G.O.P.'s French Connection") treated Republican praise for France's President-elect Nicolas Sarkozy as a gauche assault on Hillary (who Wheaton seems to like).



"Among Republicans, making fun of the French seems to always be en vogue. But while Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign has worked to quell comparisons to Segolene Royal, the socialist candidate who lost Sunday's French elections, some Republicans are suddenly eager to associate themselves with the French."



[...]



"Giuliani also used the French connection in a speech to the Heritage Foundation (which Wheaton called the "Heritage Society" in Tuesday's paper).



"During the speech, Mr. Giuliani invoked Ms. Royal to imply that Democrats, especially Mrs. Clinton, would bring about 'socialized' health insurance. He's leveled that charge before, but the French connection gives it a sort of...je ne sais quoi.



"The Clinton campaign dismisses such comparisons."



But how can Wheaton possibly be so confident Hillary won't try to socialize health insurance, given she tried to do that exact thingwhen she wasfirst ladyback in 1993?