The American Spectator : Sex, Lies, and Dominique Strauss-Kahn

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Letter From Paris

Sex, Lies, and Dominique Strauss-Kahn

By Joseph A. Harriss on 9.20.11 @ 6:08AM

A brazen DSK strains credulity as he tries to get back in the game.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the tubby, leering, former International Monetary Fund director accused of sexual harassment or rape over a period of years by women of several nationalities on two continents, disappointed even his broad-minded compatriots Sunday evening. Thirteen million, a new record for a TV newscast in France, watched his much-anticipated prime-time interview, DSK's first public comments since his return to Paris. Most had three questions in mind.

First, they wanted this well-known grand séducteur with all the sex appeal of a bloated toad, to say exactly what happened in suite 2806 of the New York Sofitel last May 14, when he allegedly forced himself on a chamber maid. They also expected him to apologize for his behavior, which shamed and embarrassed his country. And, according to pre-program polls, over 60 percent hoped that he would announce his retirement from any role in French politics. What they got instead for 23 minutes was an insulting performance of hair-splitting, half-truths, and lies.

Performance is the operative word. The camera showed a dead-panned, heavily made-up Strauss-Kahn -- blackened eyebrows, whitened face, rouged lips -- completely different from the grinning, complacent image he had projected during the months of his New York house arrest. Gone too was the self-satisfied beaming and preening of his tumultuous debarkation at Charles de Gaulle airport two weeks ago. Now every practiced gesture, each calculated grimace (eyebrows shooting up in feigned innocence, mouth downturned in a circumflex of disgust) said this was a man to be pitied.

He had, after all, suffered at the clumsy hands of "frightening" American justice, where money was everything, and where "I was humiliated before I could even say a word in my defense… I was afraid, very afraid." He hadn't been speaking five minutes before my wife, who can spot French body language at 30 yards in poor light, decided, "He's lying." Evidently she was not alone: Monday morning polls showed that he left some two-thirds of the country unconvinced.

The performance was abetted by the interviewer. Claire Chazal, a longtime colleague and friend of DSK's TV journalist wife, Anne Sinclair, who worked at the same channel for years -- she sent text messages of consolation to Sinclair during the New York episode -- went through the motions of asking the obvious questions, reading them off as if from a script. When he skirted a question, she quickly went on to the next without a probing follow-up. Their complicity was so clear that many concluded the whole thing was rehearsed. The channel, TF1, France's most popular by ratings, helped him avoid a group of protesters who chanted "DSK shame on you" and "DSK, sexual deviant, king of the chimps." He was sneaked in through a back entrance.

There was "no violence, no constraint, no aggression," about the sex he had with Naffisatou Diallo, he insisted. To make this and other points, he theatrically brandished the concluding report by Attorney General Cyrus Vance, Jr. in which he justified dropping charges. The seven-minute sex was consensual: "She lied about everything." For him, it was at most a "moral failing" that he regretted. The hospital's forensic examination when Diallo was admitted, showing signs of an attack? Merely an admission procedure, not a real physical exam, he insisted, at considerable variance from the truth as generally understood.

Chazal let that pass and pitched a softball question about whether the whole episode might not have been a conspiracy against him. He gladly took the bait, considering solemnly that it might indeed have been a trap or a plot, time would tell. Many here guffawed at the visions that one conjured up. Naffisatou Diallo as temptress entering his room in a negligee? Paid by some vast, right-wing conspiracy to set him up and torpedo his chances to become France's socialist president next year? Nobody credits France's conservatives with that much imagination or organizational ability. Quelle blague!

As for the suit brought by Tristan Banon, the French writer who tried to interview him in a Paris apartment in 2003 and who claims he attacked her "like a rutting chimpanzee," his fingers in her mouth, his hand in her underwear, he was dismissive. "Imaginary and slanderous, and I have filed a counter-suit for defamation." He refused to say more and was not pushed to do so. But earlier in the week leaked information from a police interrogation of Strauss-Kahn revealed he had changed his story. Instead of rejecting her version entirely, he now admitted "making advances" and trying to kiss Banon, who was then 24 and he 30 years older. All in good fun, of course. He desisted when the princess declined to kiss this particular frog, even if he was her best friend's father.

Predictably left unasked, in these circumstances, were any awkward questions about the Hungarian IMF economist Strauss-Kahn seduced three years ago at a Davos, Switzerland, international business forum. That was only, he remarked chivalrously, "a serious error of judgment." The lady herself said the affair was consensual; when pressed, she also said later that she consented to sleep with the boss because "I was damned if I did and damned if I didn't."

Strauss-Kahn's artificial, defensive manner changed when the subject turned to the neutral ground of his analysis of Europe's current economic mess. He was on comfortable turf here, having been touted by socialist leaders as having much-needed economic wisdom that can be useful to France. But little of that was on display. He limited himself to a few obvious remarks: Greece's debt needed to be reduced, European measures so far were inadequate, the euro's situation was serious but not dangerous. If he got paid at the IMF for ideas like that, we should ask for our dues back.

Another unasked question: what was the point of this exercise in mendacity? If he simply wanted to retire from public life, as a majority of the country wanted, he could have issued a statement and left with quiet dignity. There was a French precedent. Lionel Jospin, longtime head of the Socialist Party, minister in several governments under François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac, considered himself disgraced in 2002 when he failed to win the presidency. He quickly announced his retirement from politics, stepped down as prime minister, and has played no role since. It was the honorable thing to do.

Strauss-Kahn, whose track record for honorable behavior is spotty at best, could have only one goal in mind by making Sunday's appearance: getting back in the political game as soon as possible. Asked about his plans for the future, he replied, "I am not a candidate for any position, but my entire life has been dedicated to trying to be useful to the public good. We will see."

With party leaders discreetly trying to distance themselves from him ever since the indelible images of a handcuffed, disheveled Strauss-Kahn getting the perp walk in New York, those last three words must have struck fear and loathing into many socialist hearts.

About the Author

Joseph A. Harriss is The American Spectator's Paris correspondent. His latest book is About France.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (24) | Leave a comment

Michael Tomlinson| 9.20.11 @ 7:06AM

I'm sure Obama and/or the DNC have a job for this guy. He's so much like one of them. One wonders if the problem with the NY prosecution was the incompetence of the Democrat Attorney General Cyrus Vance, Jr. or being a Democrat was it understood "boys will be boys" or graft is just a Democrat way of saying no reason to prosecute.

Anthony| 9.20.11 @ 10:48AM

No Michael, Mr. Vance was not incompetent, as you pointed out, he was a cog of the cabal taking his marching orders to insure nothing would happen to his fellow leftist elite.
However, we will never know, as I suspect Cy Vance Jr. has had his staff package up the file of The People v. Strauss-Kahn, along with the DNA, other forensic evidence, photos, and the medical exam and sealed it.
It was probably put on a N.Y. garbage tug some weeks ago and now resides at the bottom of the Atlantic along with the other bottom feeders.

Doctor Right| 9.20.11 @ 7:38AM

Will miracles never cease???

FOUND: A sleaze-ball that not even the French can love!

Game

loulou| 9.20.11 @ 10:54AM

Dr Right, I have to disagree with you on this one. Not that DSK isn't a sleaze-ball, he is. I just say that the "maid" is a con artist who thought she landed a big one. She should be deported.

Think Duke Lacrosse.

Doctor Right| 9.20.11 @ 7:39AM

Will miracles never cease???

FOUND: A sleaze-ball that not even the French can love!

Game over, Mr. Strauss-Kahn, you disgusting pig.

POST American| 9.20.11 @ 7:42AM

----SIDE SHOW token fall guy a la
Burn--he Made---off. ---TOTALLY set up.

BTW, speaking of set ups, about that FUKISHIMA world DEPOP OP ---and the still unmentioned, 4 decades on, systematic, deliberate, ON RECORD Globalist RED China set up and TREASON OP.

----To say nothing of 'AWE--stare--IT--he'
and other 'RATION----ALLL' solutions.

-----------HUAC meets NUREMBURG 2012---------

Sean| 9.20.11 @ 10:07AM

The French Bill Clinton.

Anthony| 9.20.11 @ 10:15AM

In the first instance, Cy Vance Jr. is not the NY Attoney General, he is the Manhattan District Attoney.
In the second instance, Mr. Vance, like Strauss- Kahn, is an elitist hack who did all he could to make sure this case went away.
Does anybody with an I.Q. over 20 truly believe this was consensual sex? Only if this ugly fat pig paid this woman big bucks during the five minutes she had between her room cleaning assignments for that morning.
I don't recall this woman being found with a wad of cash on her, however, another wad was indeed found on her. Oh, yeah, it was consensual, I keep forgetting.
Well, Strauss-Kahn is safely back in France and this woman has been quietly paid off to remain silent.
The only truly "frightening experience" about the N.Y. justice system was the way Mr. Vance handled this case and allowed the rutting chimp to escape back to France. A job well done by Mr. Vance and the N.Y. leftist legal community.

loulou| 9.20.11 @ 10:56AM

How many more articles about DSK and the "maid" from Joseph A. Harriss are we going to be treated to?

One more article from him and I'm going to call him obsessed.

Dan Hirsch| 9.20.11 @ 11:16AM

loulou,

I'm with you. I posted "who cares" at the last article.

HEY, A.S.! don't you guys have anything better to write about? Come on you editors, editor-up! You can do better. Please.

Don't tread on me!

Anthony| 9.20.11 @ 12:00PM

loulou, I find your posts interesting. In the first instance, Cy Vance Jr. agrees with you completely. It's time to move on, this story is old and the less said about it, the better for all concerned, meaning Mr. Cy Vance Jr.
As to your first post, do you really think this maid, who cleans rooms for a living, fresh from the 3rd world of Africa, and who hardly speaks English, was able to trick and con the debonair, suave, sophisticted Mr. former head if the IMF? Do you really think that???
If so, then the leftist elite are a pushover, and we should be running the world in 2 days.

Drunken Sailor| 9.20.11 @ 3:14PM

Cunning and intellegient are two different beast. Yes, I believe a woman from a 3rd world country could seduce a kn0wn misongist and then change her story. Do you not find it feasible that she offered this pig sex for money, then once the dead was done threatend him for more money? You must live in a sheltered world. I think they both were guilty, just not in the way this whole thing has been portrayed.

Drunken Sailor| 9.20.11 @ 3:14PM

Correction. Should read "deed was done"

shipley130| 9.20.11 @ 3:50PM

DSK will attack another woman. It's only a matter of time. I hope next time the woman being attacked has a very large, heavy objected to thwart the attack.

WilliamInWien| 9.20.11 @ 5:26PM

"trying to be useful to the public good" as long as I fly first class, am afforded the best rooms in the best hotels, am treated like a celebrity and chamber maids cannot resist me. I think we all know which head was doing the "thinking" in that hotel room. I can't wait for his autobiography to come out!

Idaho Ike| 9.20.11 @ 8:27PM

Alas, all these ill-tempered comments! Come on, people, let us be thankful that justice prevailed, to the extent it can in our imperfect world.
Mr. Vance tried to do his job. The voters of the great state of New York will have an opportunity to tell him whether he is worthy of his office.
Mr. S-K has been exposed for what he is, and the best he can hope for is that his wife's millions will either buy the quiet of the women who are pursuing him -- there are civil suits in the legal pipelines in both the U.S. and France --, or will get him the kind of help that won him his freedom in New York. You have to hand it to him (or her) for showing the whole world that at least in the law, and particular where the defense of alleged criminals is concerned, we are still the top country.

bluecollarbytes| 9.20.11 @ 10:21PM

It's a French movie come to life. yuck

D Roamer| 9.20.11 @ 11:52PM

The "public good" this creature aspires to do, should be to just slink away and be seen no more.
These creatures have no conscience.

sunglasses| 9.21.11 @ 12:55AM

Thanks for adding my work to your collection!

POST American| 9.21.11 @ 4:54AM

"Understand, at the top, they're
inbred, inter-bred, inter-generational,
INTER--national, genocidal psychopaths.
ALLLLLL of them. We're living in their
system. It's a psycho-pathic system.
You are trying to 'fit into' a psycho-pathic
system. The ONLY ones who can, and do,
rise to the top are, AGAIN, psychopaths.
They run on PURE ego ---cannot blush,
and have no, and we mean ABSOLUTELY
NO conscience. It's an abnormal and
psychopathic system. Being abnormal,
NOTHING good or normal can EVER
come out of it."
-ALAN WATT

---Helped along, of course, by a FAKE
money system, itself entirely in the thrall
of PRIVATE, debt serf farming
--------------GLOBALIST USURY.

Jesse| 9.21.11 @ 5:47AM

One more article from him and I'm going to call him obsessed.
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http://www.wholesalehatsshop.com

Jose| 9.21.11 @ 5:48AM

DSK will attack another woman. It's only a matter of time. I hope next time the woman being attacked has a very large, heavy objected to thwart the attack.
http://www.wholesalesunglassesbrands.com
http://www.discountsunglassesforsale.com

shipley130| 9.21.11 @ 11:29PM

Watching the lastest NBC propaganda machine, Law and Order. Their episode is clearly based on the DSK case. So in a scene, the maid claims she came to America because there is a black president, and he is the president of everything. Well........