[US at Risk]

Even taking 'Scaramouche' at face value would be enough. According to Wikipedia, the protagonist of the novel is a young French aristocrat who "becomes in the course of the novel a lawyer, politician, and lover, confounding his enemies with his elegant orations and precision swordsmanship".

Sounds a lot like our boy JFnK, the lawyer, politician, and gigolo, except that his logic and sword are both quite bent. His identifying with a French aristocrat is too funny for words.

[beckaz]

No matter how you slice Scaramouche, it makes Kerry look like crap.

Here’s the American Heritage Dictionary on Scaramouch (or Scaramouche):

NOUN: A stock character in commedia dell’arte and pantomime, depicted as a boastful coward or buffoon.

ETYMOLOGY: French Scaramouche, from Italian Scaramuccia, from scaramuccia, skirmish.

Let it be! Indeed.

[McGarrett]

Actually, the protaganist is the illegitimate son of two aristocrats and raised by the mother’s friend. After joining a roaming acting troop, which uses the charactors of traditional comic plays such as Pantaloon, Rhodomont (the likely source of rhodomontade) Polichinelle, etc. All very stereotypical. Scaramouche was the trickster. He later works for a fencing master and becomes expert and still later ends up joining the National Assembly during the early days of the French Revolution, in part to keep aristocrats from killing their opponents in duels. It’s a great book (by Rafael Sabatini).

But, you’r probably right about Kerry’s admiration for the French and for The Quiet American. Remember a few years ago that Michael Caine was miffed because he didn’t win best actor for the movie.