In some fairness to the French, I read or heard that it’s illegal to parade those
accused before media, presumably regardless of “class,” Pfaff mentions. If so
there’s a fair (and I do mean FAIR) amount to be said for that. Cop shows, etc.,
aside, conviction in media—think Gary Condit—is intolerable in a nation that
claims (as it claims so much else) to be home to the fairest system of justice in
the world. Yes, very funny, I know…as we crank out who knows how many
prisoners daily, sentenced to workhouses increasingly “privatized.”

It’s not like being head of the IMF was much to brag about, was it? Not illegal to
be head of it or to work for it, but perhaps ought be a crime given the IMF’s
activities. It’s done a fair amount of sentencing of its own, imposing sentences
in the form of “austerity measures” on millions of very real and already down
and outers. Some idiot on TV claimed the other day that DSK “fixed” Greece.
Right. If so (which it’s not) only at some fairly terrible cost to average Greeks,
particularly to those promised something and then denied it, in yet another
variation on the old bait and switch so popular with transnational capital in
collusion with state governments.

Pfaff means “class” in the dirty sense, I presume. But why should the French be
different from Americans concerning turning a blind eye to class difference?
The French are actually far more conscious of it than are Americans. (Their
revolution was social, ours merely political.)

No doubt the French are feeling very embarrassed, but should they feel more so
than we ought have when Clinton was doing all the same things as DSK? Seems
to me DSK is getting deserved treatment by prosecutors (NOT media) while
Clinton was allowed to skate.

Offhand I can’t even recall all the names of the women who popped up to reveal
encounters with Clinton, seemingly as many as in the case of Tiger Woods.
Didn’t one sue? Lewinsky “consented.” Did she? It’s possible still to wonder
about that.

Recall what Hitchens said about Clinton.

Some other guy on TV noted—rightly, I think, and for a novel change—that
these guys are serious narcissists. Sounds right to me. And the type very likely
would also tend to lust for power, including or especially over women. Isn’t that
the definition of rape? Including that carried out in prisons—mano-a-mano.
(Lots of cops in American cop shows think threatening suspects with that
prospect perfectly fine, as though any and all criminals—or not depending on
whether or not yet convicted—deserving of whatever happens in the joint. Most
of the American public agrees by the way.)

DSK is, in his capacity as extreme narcissist, one serious dope as well, as is Clinton who
got away with it. IF, that is, DSK actually did it, and we don’t yet know if he did
or what were the circumstances. (Media knows, of course, but most of us aren’t
media. Media is oracle for all practical purposes.)

I’d think France lucky no longer to have DSK as possible President, whether or
not the French quite know it. Sarkozy’s been a disaster, or tried to be. The
French are more prone to object en masse than are Americans when some
bureaucrat tries to take away what was promised. Despite that, and bizarrely,
the French continue to elect those believed to be “classy” (as Pfaff notes). So do
we, though not to the same degree. Think Truman, Nixon and Carter, but also
Kennedy and Reagan and possibly Obama.

We know one thing: DSK headed up a class-based outfit completely lacking in
class, indeed hell-bent on nothing less than accumulation of capital at the
terrible cost of raping entire nations. That TOO ought be a crime, but isn’t. Not
in a world that while it hotly denies class warfare in reality seems to have no
problem with the actuality. That would be akin to hotly denying rape ever
happens when it happens all the time. Indeed, think you know who.

The embarrassment to the French is that an IMF high flyer would even be considered for the role as President of their Socialist party.
The position he held in the IMF is in no way compatible with a straight transfer to the presidency of any left leaning party.

PURE SPECULATION

HDH: Many things don’t ring true in this case. DSK probably was set up.

You really don’t know the guy. It was common practice in France that no female reporter go alone to interview the guy.

Who stands to benefit by getting rid of DSK as head of IMF, and/or as Prez of France?

Of course, Sarkozy.

But, presume you had just been elected President of France in 2007. Presume you were thinking of your reelection.

Presume you realized that it was a fluke that DSK was not your opponent in the election that you had just won. (He had come second in the Socialist primaries). Presume you understand that the Socialists are a flighty bunch and DSK was, in fact, your best opponent.

Presume that the IMF was looking for a head and you proposed DSK - knowing full well his “tendencies” - to a place that was renowned for its licentious behaviour internally. (See the report here.)

Presume that you offered the guy the prestigious job because, at the time, the protocol was for a European to be its head. After all, the job has lots of international exposure—DSK did, in fact, use it successfully to bolster his image in France.

Presume all that. Yes, he was “set up”. But maybe he walked into the trap willingly? 

If this goes to trial, which is somewhat doubtful, some surprising facts may out regarding his sexual predilections that may colour an American jury’s sentiments. 

Yes, all the above is pure speculation. But, let’s just watch what happens. Let’s not judge the guy one way of the other, which is inappropriate at the moment.

Time will tell all ... or it wont. DSK may well want to negotiate a pre-trial settlement in hopes of rescuing his political career back in France.

NOTA BENE

The French don’t give a damn about extramarital affairs and many feel it actually keeps couples together. Americans are not of that mentality.

DSK has been set up.  Nothing makes sense otherwise.

For some reason, no one in the media is asking the right questions: Who stands to benefit by getting rid of DSK as head of IMF, and/or as Prez of France?

Would like to hear a good panel discuss this particular issue…..with people like Elliot Spitzer, Jeff Toubin and Bret Stevens (WSJ)to name a few who would have interesting points of view.

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY

WP: The press in Paris now is publishing anguished self-examinations by journalists. Were they complicit in Ophelia’s ordeal?

In between the two opposite journalistic ethics - one which can paint a supposedly innocent-until-proven-guilty man a “perv” (as in the US) and another that overlooks entirely a woman’s claim on national television of sexual assault by the same distinguished politician (as in France) - there is to be found “good journalism”.

However, it depends upon us, that is, our taste for journalism. If we want libel and slander because it excites us, then we will get name-calling. If we want “see it now” journalism then we will get unverified fact and outrageous claims.

News journalism takes time and the old format of watching the news at the appointed evening our gave journalists (more or less) the time to work out the facts.

What we have now, in terms of journalism, is sensationalism of the Hollywood variety. Anything goes to get your attention (and sell commercials).

It’s all about money and for as long as it is all about money, then good journalism suffers.

Money, money, money ... corrupts the world.

What about this woman who is supposedly a maid at the hotel?  That she should
go into the suite, thinking it as empty, sounds fishy to me!  Hotels of this caliber
keep a roster of VIPs that is posted for all staff to see.  Could she have in fact been
a “call-girl” sent to entrap him?  Is there proof that she had been a housemaid
there for some time?  Is she a member of the Service Employees Union?  Why is
there nothing in the media about this?

Mitr: The current French political class is every bit as corrupt as that of the Third Republic

Piffle.

Yes, they are elitist. Yes, they love the privileges of office. Yes, they most all come from the same university (Ecole National d’Administration) that inculcates them in statist management principles.

Yes, when they are Ministers and find themselves at an elegant Louis XV desk in a sumptuous office that was once a Palace with servants at their beck and call ... yes, all that can and does get to one’s head.

But corrupt? Some yes, just as in the US. And yet, like the US, not all of them. Does corporate money enter into political calculations in France? Yes, but nothing like the same very corruption that has rotted American democracy.

FRENCHIE

BW: We have seen how fast Interpol responded to the arrest warrant for Julian Assange, who hadn’t even been charged with any crime. Yet the convicted pedophile, Roman Polanski, who fled from justice after he was ‘convicted’ of drugging and sodomizing a pre-teenage girl-was granted clemency when he was never extradited due to the artistic nobles oblige granted to the elites.

Interpol could act on Assange because he was in a country that had an Extradition Agreement with the US and with Sweden.

Polanski was not granted clemency, not by the US anyway. The US tried to extradite him from Switzerland, when he mistakenly stepped foot there. Switzerland does have an Extradition Agreement with the US, but Switzerland allowed Polanski to return to France. (If this is clemency, it is because Polanski reputedly paid the victim $500,000 and the victim has publicly forgiven Polanski. Polanski remains nonetheless extraditable to the US.)

In fact, the Polanski affair is a backdrop to the DSK-affair. DSK was found on a flight to France after allegedly having committed a sexual assault. It would have been impossible to extradite him.

This fact has weighed heavily, and rightly so, in first refusing bail and now allowing bail with highly stringent conditions unlike any heretofore seen in a US court. Not even Maddof was treated this severely.

They want this Frenchie to stand trial. And there are many French who think he should as well. The guy has been tempting fate once to often.

This time fate caught up with him.

I have two words Tawana Brawley enuf said

Jospin led the PS in the direction of New Labour (itself following the lead of the New Democrats) and the result was that he never even made it to the actual election in 2002, leading to the re-election of Chirac and Sarkozy’s catastrophic rule. Perhaps this will occasion the removal of the compromised party leadership, something which is more conceivable in French politics than US politics. The current French political class is every bit as corrupt as that of the Third Republic . . .

We have seen how fast Interpol responded to the
arrest warrant for Julian Assange, who hadn’t even
been charged with any crime. Yet the convicted
pedophile, Roman Polanski, who fled from justice
after he was ‘convicted’ of drugging and sodomizing a
pre-teenage girl-was granted clemency when he was
never extradited due to the artistic nobles oblige
granted to the elites. Should DSK be granted bail?
Hell no. By rights he should be released into the
general population at Riker’s Island and treated like
any other sexual criminal. There must be tangible,
forensic evidence, since the defense is claiming
‘consensual’ relations. How symbolic that the victim
was an African immigrant. I guess the IMF has become
habituated to screwing third world countries and
their long suffering people.

MAYBE THE WHOLE BANKSTER CON IS NOW GOING TO GET THE COME
UPPENCE IT DESERVES…AND THIS SHYLOCK IS THE FIRST OF MANY TO
COME….

Its reported that some in France are discussing the possibilities that
this DSK affair as either an act of revenge on the part of the followers
of OBL ... insidious attempts of antisemitism in America…..or a Jihadist
sting.

The above in addition to media disagreement as to how sexy the
chamber maid is. And how much DSK really, really loves his wife.

Liberte, egalite et fraternite.

Not only Strauss-Kahn is an embarrassment for France, but rather an embarrassment for all descent human beings, especially men.

What makes things worse is that this sick dude has a very beautiful wife who’s a true beauty to look at.  Unless she’s been fooling around like he’s been, she should never forgive him for this monstrosity.

Worse yet, he’s a great embarrassment for the good word of “socialism.” Staying in a hotel suit at Sofitel chain for three-thousand dollars a night is not socialism, but rather extreme, abusive capitalism.

Let me suggest a fair punishment for this dude when found guilty: castrate him or even cut off his whole penis and let him rot in jail till his death!

It seems appropriate that the IMF is headed by a rapist. I’m glad he is ruined and in the slammer.

Maybe now the IMF will get the scrutiny it deserves.