But he did it with a subordinate abroad as IMF chief last time, so the 'audience' wasn't just the French, and he could have foreseen the consequences.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

What happened next is something else.

Wind power

These days I'm more inclined to doubt assertions of intelligent action.

From the airline code (AF23, he was on the 4:40pm flight), which departed at 5:13 yesterday.

Wind power

And i thought, what's wrong with a $800/nite room, though on second thought if it's a suite and used for meetings, ok.

(And you know i don't begrudge comfortable travel, for the operational benefits as you say.)

I'm also not forgetting that he may NOT have been set up, that this is an example of his own weakness, and that's what drove my comment. In fact, for me, both the set up and the story as reported strain my credibility.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

I'm sure it would work for Berlusconi...

Economics is politics by other means

While not earth-shattering, I find it a reasonable improvement for a term in office. Organisations like this has great inertia.

Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se

Since taking over the IMF, he has won praise for putting the fund at the center of global efforts to cope with the global financial meltdown.

He introduced sweeping changes to ensure that countries swamped by the financial collapse had access to emergency loans, and was pivotal in brokering bailouts for Iceland, Hungary, Greece, Ireland, and recently Portugal.

He has overseen changes that have given emerging market countries, such as China, India and Brazil, greater voting power in the IMF, and weighed into thornier issues by urging China to let its currency rise in a dispute with the United States.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, detenido anoche por una supuesta agresión sexual, ha conseguido en los últimos años revitalizar un Fondo Monetario Internacional que languidecía -en el mejor de los casos- en su papel de bombero económico del mundo, ignorados sus consejos tras unos años en los que el FMI imponía a los países con problemas (latinoamericanos y asiáticos, durante los ochenta y los noventa) una severa cura de adelgazamiento con el sesgo neoliberal -y hoy totalmente desfasado- del Consenso de Washington. En estas llegó el huracán financiero internacional. Y el FMI, con Strauss-Kahn a la cabeza -socialista y francés, para más señas, en una institución acusada de ser el patio trasero de EE UU y el epítome de su política económica de desregulación y capitalismo de casino-, resucitó entonces a Keynes. Pidió estímulos fiscales en todo el mundo, consiguió que los emergentes -China, India y Brasil- contribuyeran a las arcas del FMI para volver a ejercer el papel de bombero en los países con problemas, fue uno de los ideólogos de sustituir el G-7 por el G-20 y, en fin, se le considera uno de los personajes capitales a la hora de impedir que la Gran Recesión fuera aún peor: una Gran Depresión en toda regla, al estilo de los años treinta del siglo pasado.

 I can accept all that about the Clinton/Lewinsky affair.  For one thing, Ms. Lewinsky wasn't "just there", she was clearly in a real sense, dazzled by the president and in a way that can't be compared to a hotel maid--or at least as we's suppose--"available" to him.

  On the other hand, what Clinton couldn't and didn't do was exercise the adult responsible perspective to grasp that in his position, she could not be fairly considered entirely free of his undue influence.  In other words, a better person, even tempted by her as an object of lust, might have reasoned that his power and authority over her made any such relations, no matter how consensual, improper and out-of-bounds.  That's the very thing that such sexual obsessions make next-to-impossibe for those in power.

"In such an environment it is not surprising that the ills of technology should seem curable only through the application of more technology..." John W Aldridge

  Also, if the key witness/complaintant is determined (for whatever reason) not to cooperate with the prosecution, then the prosecutor's range of options and liklihood of success suddenly become dramatically reduced.

   for sexual assault classes and descriptions in N.Y. state, see:

  http://ypdcrime.com/penal.law/article130.htm

   and search (CTRL-"F")  "misdemeanror" or "felony"

"In such an environment it is not surprising that the ills of technology should seem curable only through the application of more technology..." John W Aldridge

   A very expensive high-profile criminal case which fails to enjoy the primary victim's active support and testimony, and, as a result, fails to win a conviction, looks very bad for the prosecutor.

  As for the best lawyer money can buy--you needn't worry there.  If nothing else, he'll have that.

"In such an environment it is not surprising that the ills of technology should seem curable only through the application of more technology..." John W Aldridge

   " I don't agree that enjoying a blow job from a pretty intern is an act at all degrading, to either consenting party, nor do I see all commercial sex as exploitation. But that's not the point."

  If Monica Lewinsky was solely responsible for all the initiative in her personal relations with President Clinton, then I'd fully agree that it was no one's business but their own.  However, to think that his singularly superior station had no role in their relationship and no influence on Ms. Lewinski (whether she was aware of any influence or not) strikes me as quite naive.

  it's fine with me to raise the point if you find it pertinent.  However, my objections concerning DSK character don't turn on anything relating to sexual relations between actually consenting adults.  In DSK's case, there are examples (plural) of his having played on his official authority and used it to impose sexually on people in subordinate roles to his.  Beyond that, my view of DSK--and of the general run of his class of colleagues, whom I condemn regardless of party--is that he is an eager "player" and promoter of the corrupt system which serves his over-sized ego.  He and all like him are absolutely instrumental to arranging and maintaining the corrupt political and financial systems which prevail.  

  The sexual adventures--to put it mildly--are, in my opinion, just another manifestation of a personal character which is in general disdainful of the very idea of accountability to the public, of a character who seeks power and wealth for their own sake and enjoyment rather than as means to a more respectable end: to serve larger public needs and interests of ordinary people---the kind with whom DSK and his professional fellows are spared almost completely from having any contact with except on their own terms.

   He lives in a bubble of privilege and is continually surrounded by deferential people.  Some of this is now inevitable under the circumstances of the modern technological societies in which we live but it seems to me that DSK and all or nearly all of his cohort wouldn't have it any other way.  They live for the use and abuse of power, wealth and privilege and it is this, above all else, rather than the particular sexual nature of the current affair, which most disgusts me about the man and all who resemble him in it.

   

"In such an environment it is not surprising that the ills of technology should seem curable only through the application of more technology..." John W Aldridge

Poor guy:

"he came out of the bathroom, fully naked, and attempted to sexually assault her," Mr. Browne said, adding, "He grabs her, according to her account, and pulls her into the bedroom and onto the bed." He locked the door to the suite, Mr. Browne said.

"She fights him off, and he then drags her down the hallway to the bathroom, where he sexually assaults her a second time," Mr. Browne added. (NYT)

1. DSK did what he is accused of.

2. DSK messed around with the maid but it was consensual.

3. The whole thing is a set-up and didn't actually happen.

If option number 1 or 2 occurred, he is fucked.  In truth, it would be nearly impossible for option 2 to have happened.  He would have to show that he had a relationship with the maid.  How long was he in the hotel?  Was she cleaning his room every day, which would give them some time to get to know each other?   If she had never been in his room with him before, and there WAS a sexual encounter, then option number 1 is most likely how it went down, unless this maid is very shady, which won't be hard to prove by looking into her background.

There is one other question to ask: was this (subconsciously) self-inflicted?

people at the airport did not know what happened at the hotel

to have someone in France know the whole story before it was printed in the NY Post means they must have known someone in the NYPD or at the Post, not at the hotel or at the airport

While your suggestion is credible, this still opens questions.

Wind power

   You'd think that with such frequent travel, such important people would develop better & more careful habits in leaving their rooms for the airport.

   Forgetting the cell phone "somewhere"---the office desk,  the conference room, etc. is one thing.  Leaving it in your hotel room as you depart definitively---that's what we're considering.

   R. Branson does this often?  I don't think so.  They're not the same thing.

   Try to think carefully.

"In such an environment it is not surprising that the ills of technology should seem curable only through the application of more technology..." John W Aldridge

I don't see the point of the police rush anyway (other the result of having watched too many police movies). If he did get away, France does have an extradition treaty with the U.S. Imagine running the IMF and campaigning for president while fighting extradition....

I don't know if he is guilty or not.  It sounds like there are some political overtones which makes me doubt the story, but he seems capable of it, so who knows?

As for him running for president, I think he and/or the FRENCH should decide.  

   Also, the insider reactions are predictable:

   We're reminded of the sanctity of the presumption of innoncence---though, until recently, french law didn't bother to even pretend to protect the rights of those accused of a crime by requiring the presence of a legal advisor throughout arrest and detainment.  An important (on paper, that is) step has (seemingly) been taken, though the means to make it effective are sorely wanting.

  But, as one of their "own"--even if many of his own competing party fellows privately relish this set-back or side-lining--the insiders are quick to give the general public lessons on the importance of fairness in treatment and judgment.  It's quite different when the accused are adolescent immigrants living in the urban ghetto-burbs.  For them, it's "immediate appearance and hearing" before a magistrate who dispenses justice in summary form in a matter of minutes while a public defender is fumbling for the right page of text.

   DSK might or might not have assaulted the hotel maid, but his word will probably count many times more than hers in the "did" - "did-not" dispute.  If, on the other hand, she'd taken his cigarette lighter, she'd certainly lose her job and she might even face jail time as a consequence---her lawyer's fees wouldn't run to tens or hunderds of thousands of dollars, either as she'd have to take what she could get.  

"In such an environment it is not surprising that the ills of technology should seem curable only through the application of more technology..." John W Aldridge

And you have to wonder what it would be possible to find out about the other players if one happened to start digging.