[Condor51]

*** Truth is, he didn't call them scum.***

The truth is, he most certainly did.

Race riots expose France's fault lines - The Australian - WORLD; Pg. 11 - Byline: Emma-Kate Symons 11/02/2005

Interior Minister NicolasSarkozy reiterated his vow of zero... by using words such as "scum" to describe violent youths.. Mr Sarkozy was "poaching the territory of the extreme...for the use of language such as "scum" to describe the young people of the...

FRENCH RIOTS: 'RIOTING HAS SPREAD BECAUSE PEOPLE ARE IGNORED' - The Independent (London) - First Edition; NEWS; Pg. 2 - Byline: DOMINIQUE SOPO PRESIDENT, SOS RACISME - 11/05/2005

Interior Minister, NicolasSarkozy, who threatened to 'hose down' the 'scum' on the estates.

Lexis Nexis is a wonderful thing.

There's more but two independent references of different dates should suffice.

[razorback-bert]

Neither of those are quotes of his actual words.

I don't know the whole truth, but I don't doubt the leftist media is capable of misstating him.

[MinuteGal]

There is a difference of opinion on the word "scum" as iterated by Minister Sarko. A French caller phoned in to either Medved or Rush and stated that the correct translation of the term used is "rabble", not "scum".

While it appears on the surface that there's not much difference in definition, the caller went on, "rabble" is a term oft used in French history, mainly in regards to the Revolution masses who rose against the royalty.

The French word under debate may not be as perjorative as the "scum" translation which sounds very bad to American/English ears.

I'm not a speaker of French, so I'll leave it to the language experts to step in.

Plus, I don't rely on the MSM which will put the worst construction on ANYTHING, including translations.

Leni