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The Current Crisis
What Is to Become of Dominique Strauss-Kahn?
How cooked is his goose?
WASHINGTON — Readers of this column will remember that when Dominique Strauss-Kahn was taken off an Air France flight in May just as it was about to vamoose for Paris I was suspicious. The story and circumstances of his adventure with the chambermaid, Nafissatou Diallo, in the Sofitel Hotel kept changing. In the meantime, he was accorded the indignity of the Perp Walk. He was sent to Rickers Island, a veritable hellhole. He got up on the morning of May 14 as one of the world’s most distinguished public servants. He was head of the International Monetary Fund and apparently about to become the Socialist Party’s frontrunner for president of France. He retired that evening a convicted felon in the eyes of almost anyone familiar with his story, and I suspect slept badly.
Yet there was a handful of us who were holdouts. We said he was, according to American legal standards, innocent until proven guilty. Well, now charges against him have been dropped. He is a free man, and he and his wife flew back to Paris on Air France flight 007. There was a smile on his face, but I wonder what was going on behind that smile. The devil take the hindmost Frenchman was still facing civil charges here and possible rape charges in France. Moreover he was unemployed, out on his ear at the IMF and an unlikely Socialist candidate for anything at home. As Chantal Brunel of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s party told Agence France-Presse, Strauss-Kahn “is going to be an indelible stain on the Socialist Party.” She speculated that he “will harm the chances” of his party’s presidential candidate.
Actually, at France’s Charles de Gaulle airport there was a mad crush. His fans were there with his enemies and the press and the police and a singer. Yes, one fellow made a scene by singing Verdi. I wondered about him. What aria did he sing? Is there one about a rake accosting a chambermaid, or even better a chambermaid deflowering a statesman. That would make a great modern variation for Verdi. And how good a voice did the romantic fellow actually have?
There were many idiotic assessments of DSK, as he is called in France in a sobriquet that summons up the initials JFK to Americans. Is he that charming? He looks a little dumpy. François Pupponi, a friend and ally and the mayor of the Paris suburb of Sarcelles where Strauss-Kahn too served as mayor, spoke personally and with the wide world in mind. He told LCI television, “Let’s not put pressure on him. He needs to rebuild himself. What’s important is that he is back in France. He’s going to be able to think about the future with clarity.” And Pupponi added some claptrap about Strauss-Kahn’s value to France, to Europe, and to the world.
Pierre Muscovici, another friend, added, Strauss-Kahn “will be useful to his country, useful to the left, and his recognized skills, will find a new use.” Which skills Muscovici was referring to is unclear. But perhaps not to former Socialist prime minister Michel Rocard, who noted that Strauss-Kahn “obviously has a mental illness, trouble controlling is impulses.” Rocard was talking about women.
What are French women going to say about Strauss-Kahn’s liberation? Anne Mansouret, the mother of the woman who has charged him with rape, says the media hubbub surrounding his homecoming was “indecent.” Socialist leader Martine Aubry said Tuesday, “I think the same as many women about the attitude of Dominique Strauss-Kahn to women.” She is hostile, though she is not barring him from a future post in government.
Anne-Elisabeth Moutet, an independent French journalist who has been covering the Strauss-Kahn adventure, has said it represents a huge turning point in French society and in French politics. Up until now his behavior was accepted. From now on, non plus. Having a reputation like Strauss-Kahn will cook a politician’s goose… perhaps in a nice orange sauce. I am not so sure.
About the Author
R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. is the founder and editor in chief of The American Spectator. He is the author of The Death of Liberalism, published by Thomas Nelson Inc. His previous books include the New York Times bestseller Boy Clinton: the Political Biography; The Impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton; The Liberal Crack-Up; The Conservative Crack-Up; Public Nuisances; The Future that Doesn’t Work: Social Democracy’s Failure in Britain; Madame Hillary: The Dark Road to the White House; The Clinton Crack-Up; and After the Hangover: The Conservatives’ Road to Recovery.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (27) | Leave a comment
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Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 9.8.11 @ 6:35AM
He's free and it's not likely anything will happen to him.
However, there is a moral to the story.
Perhaps several.
The first is be careful of who you have sex with if you're a man.
Women can be treacherousness in may ways and they play the rape card so well and so fast.
It also proves once again that when it comes to men, they are guilty of rape until proven innocent.
Think Duke University where college age males found out that one black woman lying trumped five white males who told the truth.
The DSK incident only proved that society is flawed and perhaps men like DSK have bad judgment.
In retrospect it looks like he was the victim of a clever woman and like other men faced with rape allegations other former partners come forward to join the gang bang and perhaps walk away with some cash.
When I was very young I overheard an older man state that all women were prostitutes to greater or lesser degrees.
Incidents like DSK prove him right.
Cincinna| 9.8.11 @ 6:03PM
Are you sure you're not French? It's misogynist thoughts like those you expressed that got DSK in trouble in the first place. The "great seducer" is nothing but a serial sexual predator known to all in France as such.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 9.8.11 @ 7:26PM
Your comments are ridiculous but prove my point since he's never been convicted of anything.
Viv| 9.8.11 @ 6:35AM
The only one whom I heard say that DSK is innocent until proven guilty, right up front, was Michael Savage.
loulou| 9.8.11 @ 11:28AM
I also knew from the getgo that there was something fishy about this "maid".
Michael Crites| 9.8.11 @ 11:47AM
From the beginning, on these very pages Mr. Tyrrell and Mr. Stein reminded us that DSK was accused but not convicted, and that the whole story had not yet come to light.
The response of many of those commenting was embarrasing to say the least. Guilty, guilty, guilty! No need for investigation or trial. We KNOW he's guilty, and if you don't agree then you're guilty too (and probably hiding something similar in your past).
I always thought that conservatives valued facts over feelings, truth over emotion. I applaud the writers at AmSpec for holding up that standard even in the face of "conservative" derision.
Occam's Tool| 9.8.11 @ 5:10PM
And TAS's Ben Stein, Viv. Ooh, and me.
Lisa| 9.8.11 @ 6:50AM
Innocent until proven guilty? So, honestly, NY cops would pull somebody off a plane for no good reason? hmm...like Mr Stein before you, you disappoint me, Monsieur Tyrell. The Daily Beast beat the American Spectator on this with Mlle Lalami's remarkable lambast of Mr Henri-Levy's drivel: http://www.thedailybeast.com/a.....cuser.html
Thanks anyway.
Bob K.| 9.8.11 @ 8:03AM
Here is a better title:
"What is to Become of Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Why Should We Care?"
Put this column in your next "Current Wisdom."
Occam's Tool| 9.8.11 @ 5:11PM
Oh, Bob, very simple---he's gonna ride the anti-American jetstream and become President of France.
Anthony| 9.8.11 @ 10:27AM
Thank you Bob, however, your faithful readers are well aware of our American system of justice and the legal presumption of innocent until proven guilty.
Do you really need to suggest otherwise to us and that some how you were better than us?
As bloggers, we are allowed the same luxury that is given to journalists, that is, the right to offer opinions. We do not operate under the rules of the court, only under the rules of public opinion.
However, since you brought the subject up, having been in the legal trenches for some 30 years, I'll once again dare to offer my assessment of the DSK case. The man, like Mr. Bill Ayers, is guilty as hell, but free as a bird.
The NY D.A., Mr. Cy Vance Jr. a scion of the D elite establishment, did what all good pol hacks do, he turned a silk purse into a sow's ear.
By that I mean he took a fairly strong case and allowed the well to be poisoned to the point that sufficient "questions" were raised about the accuser. Given her status and that of Mr. DSK, the poor woman never had a chance.
Did you notice how after the arrest and the initial admission of DNA and other forensic evidence the case slowly began to turn and suddenly the victim was under assault?
A common tactic for sure, in that Vance cleverly allowed the worm to turn, and as soon as public opinion was sufficiently brainwashed, the case was allowed to disappear.
The carnard that the victim" had issues" is an old ploy commonly used when the powers to be want and need a case to "go away".
Notice how Mike Nifong in N.C. had no such concerns about his victim and how the Duke lacrosse team was lynched by the faculty and student body of Duke, dispite early evidence that the victim was a liar. This victim tried to have Cy Vance Jr. removed from the case, but that issue was quickly delt with.
So Bob, no need to fret over the well being of DSK. I suspect like Bill Ayers, he will have a perpetual smirk on his face for years to come. Be happy Bob, Cy Vance Jr. did his job well and the elite establishment will take due notice of his service to the cause.
Perhaps you should be more concerned about how the victim is sleeping at night as opposed to DSK's nocturnal habits, which I suspect will soon resume with gusto.
loulou| 9.8.11 @ 11:30AM
What makes you think DSK is guilty?
The victim seems to be the victimizer in this case. She's a con artist whose con backfired on her.
Anthony| 9.8.11 @ 2:52PM
Oh, I don't know loulou, perhaps all of DSK's semen all over the woman is a hint.
So this chambermaid was lying in wait for DSK in order to prey on him, is that your theory?
Gee, there are other fat, white, rich older men who frequent that hotel that she could have preyed on before the poor victim DSK walked into her web, don't you think?
Occam's Tool| 9.8.11 @ 5:12PM
Anthony, he's a scumbag---but it is innocent until proven guilty. I despise attorneys and judges, incidentally.
jean-marc| 9.8.11 @ 12:40PM
DSK will be whiter than white, poorer though. TD International, Guidepost Solutions, RSCG, Brafman and Taylor, charges dropped - all this costs a lot of money.
Odd thing is even with all his wife's money, if he had been an American politician his career would have been over years ago - the Mery scandal, where he played with whether his actions had been carried out by him as a private person or as a minister, would have finished him. - the MNEF scandal were he produced invoices to justify payments he had made to himself from the students union, and then it turned out that the invoices had been 'manufactured' a lot later and back dated a 'mistake' as he said.
In any of the leading democracies other than France or Italy he would have been the past.
The 'comm' surrounding the rest of the Diallo affair is going to be very interesting.
Leaked by his lawyers - no money probably a conspiracy. It is going to take an awful lot of money to RSCG, Guidepost, IT etc to build this story and get it accepted by us idiots.
Putin/Sarkozy/Royale/CIA ??
=> DAs office
=> Staff of Sofitel from top to bottom
=> NYPD
=> Medical staff
=> Diallo
Imagine the work in inventing credible conspiracy connections between that lot!
Add to it that the 'act' occurred while he was trying to rush out to a lunch engagement and leave the hotel.
Going to be very interesting to follow.
ny | 9.8.11 @ 1:33PM
I think you'll be interested in this recent short about exactly WHY Vance needed this case to "go away".
http://vimeo.com/25966892
Dan Hirsch| 9.8.11 @ 10:41AM
WHO CARES????
Fuggedabowdit!
Nothing written on AS will affect DSK's future one way or the other. If France wants to put this creep into a position of power, let 'em. It'd be no surprize, and he would serve them rightly.
DTOM
Bob K.| 9.8.11 @ 2:00PM
Exactly! Who cares?
Except maybe Anthony the Attorney above.
The guy is a celebrity! He walked! Get him a date with Kim Kardashian! Let Chris Mathews cover the story.
Anthony| 9.8.11 @ 4:19PM
Dear Bob, Over the years I've heard folks like you say the same thing from a comfortable distance, "who cares"!!! Apparently, you're ok with a "celebrity" getting away with this type of behavior. I expect such tawdry moral indifference from folks over at the Daily Kos, not conservatives at TAS.
So why do you read TAS if you are unmoved by immorality, unequal treatment under the law, and outright corruption at the hightest levels of government? What's the big deal???
But if this woman was close to you, or Mr. DSK ran you down in his speeding Mercedes and was awarded similar treatment, your moral indignation wouldn't be asking if he is going to get a date with Kim Kardashian.
I didn't write this article, nor did I ask RET to do so; he did, and I responded.
But, who cares, right Bob?
Bob K.| 9.8.11 @ 9:34PM
Mr Anthony,
AS blog articles are like free lunches in a bar. If the bar has some ham you could make a ham sandwich if it had some bread.
This article will give one dyspepsia if seriously chewed and digested. Mr DSK is not worth a good belch!
JimH| 9.8.11 @ 10:43AM
Verdi? Something from Don Giovanni may have been a better choice.
cuban pete| 9.8.11 @ 2:15PM
JimH,
Bingo!!! Good catch.
Leporello's "Catalog Aria".
cp
Moe Blotz| 9.11.11 @ 10:38AM
If the bloke at the airport sang "Le Don e Mobile" (please excuse if my Italian spelling is incorrect),Verdi is appropriate. In English,"Woman So Changeable"
Delta Zelda| 9.8.11 @ 2:50PM
The most dangerous piece of metal a man will ever encounter is his zipper. It can cut his throat and cause him to bleed to death.
POST American| 9.8.11 @ 11:35PM
---------------------FINAL WORD-----------------------
Strauss CON is a token side show of a side show.
Diane1976| 9.15.11 @ 10:23PM
Well, if the writer of the article, did stick with the principle of innocent until proved guilty, he/she is in rare company in the DSK affair. Congratulations.
The rush to judgement, the reliance on every snippet of gossip, the viscious anti-French bigotry, the obsession with the notion that a person who has wealth can also be a social democrat and care about other people (how can that be?), the stupid articles describing everything he ate as if there was something inherently wrong with the man going to a good restaurant, the ignorant bashing of everybody in France as if France alone is the only country where people still hold to the principle that public figures are entitled to a shred of privacy, as opposed to the US where their every private move is fodder for unscrupulous political and media opponents, feeding a public's desire for salacious details, and calling it American "morality".
Oh, what a load of nonsense. Unless this man is actually found guilty of something in a court by somebody, let's hope all the vicious gossips will finally move on to destroy somebody else and leave him alone. I think he's had his share.