Phil Gramm's "Nation of Whiners" narrative certainly applies to the Very. Serious. People. occupying the Washington Post editorial board.  French President Nicolas Sarkozy does not drink their Kool Aid on trade, and they whine aloud once again. 

A "Flame Throwing Frenchman" they call him.  Certainly more imaginative than the usual "protectionist/isolationist" name calling.

Here is the sin, as articulated by Fred Hyatt and his gang:

But, temporarily doing double duty as titular head of the European Union, Mr. Sarkozy has launched a series of verbal attacks on the European Union's representative at the talks, Peter Mandelson of Britain. Mr. Sarkozy, at variance with the view of E.U. economists, has accused Mr. Mandelson of selling out Europe's workers to the tune of "100,000" lost jobs, and its farmers to the tune of a "20 percent" drop in production. To these off-the-cuff figures, Mr. Sarkozy has added the assertion that "in a world where there are 800 million poor people who cannot satisfy their hunger and where a kid dies every 30 seconds from hunger, I will never accept a reduction in agricultural production on the altar of global liberalism."

This is the Editorial Board that thinks a Doha Agreement, any agreement... any Doha agreement, is needed to "save our troubled planet." 

It is a religion.  No fact.  Check out their untrue food production/Doha causation argument:

the less market share the developed world's farmers take up with the help of subsidies, the more opportunities there will be, over time, for poor countries to feed themselves.

If you repeat it enough, it becomes fact.  But it is not fact.  Poor countries are able to feed themselves less ably under trade liberalization. Because their domestic producers are displaced by multinational food traders that were not there before.

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