EXACTLY WHO IS 'SUPERLIAR' AND 'SUPERTHIEF'?

In an Associated Press story about how French President Jacques Chirac's blunt criticisms of Bush are seen by world leaders as arrogant.

The two men disagree on Iraq, the so-called war on terrorism, Turkey's bid to join the European Union, Israel and the global AIDS issue, to name a few points of contention.

"Unfortunately, the U.S. administration is extremely arrogant and the French president is extremely arrogant," said Dominique Guiliani of the Robert Schuman Foundation. "They are very much of the same fabric, and each says things in the bluntest way. This makes things dramatic."

But perhaps the most illuminating item is the following:

Polls put Chirac's approval ratings at just over 50 percent. Television satirists call him "Superliar" and "Superthief," evoking corruption charges from which he is immune as long as he is president.

At least a healthy skepticism still exists in the world's second-oldest democracy, if not the first.