Life's Like That
One of the many interesting positions that life can twist you into is that of being wrong and right on the same subject.
Such has been the case with THIS POST, where I opined that Dominique Strauss Kahn, on his return to France, would protest his innocence (right), but subtly and through his "people" (wrong).
Telling It Like he Wants it Believed
Clearly imagining himself to be "The Great Communicator"(wrong), and bursting with the hubris particular to public figures who have committed a big "NO-NO," DSK decided he alone would attempt damage control (wrong).
His televised mea culpa succeeded only in giving stand-up comedians more original material, and opposition politicians more ammunition (as if any more was needed).
Promoted as an "interview," the great seducer's humility rant was clearly a heavily scripted public relations spin. "Interrogated" with the ferocity of a purring cat by a pal of his wife's -- Claire Chazal, the major "News Blonde" on France's TF1 channel -- DSK continued to amaze and astound.
Just The Facts
One of his major points being that whatever his "moral error(s)," both in New York and France, there was "no violence" involved. He "unscored" this assertion by referring repeatedly (12 times) to the New York prosecutor's report.
This would have a chance of being halfway believable, were it not for the physical evidence. Bruised shoulder, torn clothing, vaginal redness, etc.
OK -- He did admit to being a bad boy. Which he did also at the IMF -- for which they didn't fire him... and from which he still gets a six-figure pension for life. However, when the great (imagined) communicator maintained that the sex was consensual, I was immediately reminded of the wise words of H.L Mencken , the late and respected editor of the Baltimore Sun newspaper: "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people."
While there may be some French people among the 13 million DSK-SPIN viewers who have just fallen off the back of a turnip truck, the majority can smell squirrel dookie when it's in their face. They can tie their own shoelaces. They can walk and chew gum at the same time.
So -- when a wealthy man in his 60′s tells them that he had consensual sex at 11am in the morning, in his $3000 a night hotel suite, with a hotel maid in her 30′s... and that no money was exchanged... how many of those French people are thinking of the cartoon character whose nose kept getting bigger? (hint: first three letters are: "PIN", ends with "O.")
Don't Walk This Way
Sadly for DSK, the political result of his "Kahnfomercial", is increased distance. Especially from those in his own party. While not uttering a negative word, politicians of every stripe are taking their marching orders from the three wise monkeys : "See no evil." "Hear no evil." "Speak No evil."
So who's the monkey here?