Quoth Deacon at Powerline: Chirac's party was hammered in regional elections at the end of March. As the Washington Post's Jim Hoagland put it, "French voters succeeded where the Bush administration failed: They have punished President Jacques Chirac and his center-right government." In fact, they gave the once-discredited Socialist Party control over 20 of the country's 21 regional administrations -- and defeated every one of the 19 Chirac Cabinet ministers running for local office.