"American politicians are sometimes EXTREMELY nasty."
I think one of the reasons French politics are simply not as nasty as American is that the politicians hold a multiplicity of offices and posts, and all have some sort of permanent posting in the cadres of the national civil service. So, regardless of who is in power, the others are all also in some sort of power.
The bickering is, therefore, petty, but it does not reach the sort of murderous proportions that it seems to in the United States.
You've never lived in Ottawa. LOL!