I love vomiting upon a Sunday morning. It's my new religion. Get a Globe and puke a prayer.
"Disgraced IMF leader seeks redemption" by Doreen Carvajal and Maia de la Baume |
New York Times, October 14, 2012
PARIS — More than a year after resigning in disgrace as the managing
director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn is
seeking redemption with a new consulting company, the lecture circuit,
and a uniquely French legal defense to settle a criminal inquiry that
exposed his hidden life as a libertine.
Strauss-Kahn, 63, a silver-haired economist, is seeking to throw out
criminal charges in an inquiry into ties to a prostitution ring in
northern France with the legal argument that the authorities are
unfairly trying to ‘‘criminalize lust.’’
That defense and the investigation, which is facing a critical
judicial hearing in late November, have offered a keyhole view into a
clandestine practice in certain powerful circles of French society:
secret soirees with lawyers, judges, police officials, journalists, and
musicians that start with a fine meal and end with naked guests and
public sex with multiple partners.
In France, ‘‘Libertinage’’ has long history, dating from a
16th-century religious sect of French libertines. But the most
perplexing question in the Strauss-Kahn affair is how a career
politician with ambition to lead one of Europe’s most powerful nations
was blinded to the possibility that his zest for sex parties could
present a liability, or risk blackmail.
The exclusive orgies — lavish champagne affairs costing around
$13,000 each — were organized as a roving international circuit from
Paris to Washington by businessmen seeking to ingratiate themselves with
Strauss-Kahn.
Some of that money, according to a lawyer for the main host,
ultimately paid for prostitutes because of a shortage of women at the
mixed soirees orchestrated largely for the benefit of Strauss-Kahn, who
sometimes sought sex with three or four women.
On Thursday, Strauss-Kahn broke a long silence to acknowledge that
perhaps his double life as an unrestrained libertine was a little outre....
This month Strauss-Kahn won a major legal battle after a French
prosecutor dropped part of the investigation into an alleged sexual
assault at a hotel in Washington. A Belgian prostitute recanted her
earlier accusation, saying the encounter was just rough sex play, but
Strauss-Khan is still a suspect for involvement in a prostitution ring.
Translation: Pre$$ure was brought to bear.
Buoyed by that first victory, Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers predict he will
triumph in France, where having sex with prostitutes is not illegal,
although soliciting and pimping are.
In essence, they argue, there is nothing criminal about the sexual
life of a libertine, according to Strauss-Kahn’s lead lawyer, Henri
Leclerc.
And that makes it all right?
That defense may not satisfy the charges in a New York civil lawsuit
filed by Nafissatou Diallo, who accused Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault
last year in a New York hotel where she was a chambermaid. Lawyers
representing both sides deny there are financial negotiations under way.
‘‘His travels will eventually bring him to a courthouse in the Bronx,
where he will face justice,’’ Kenneth Thompson, the lawyer representing
Diallo, said in an interview.
All of Strauss-Kahn’s current legal woes in New York and France mixed together last year, with devastating results.
Strauss-Kahn’s name first surfaced in the French inquiry by chance,
in May 2011. French investigators were tapping the telephones of
Dominique Alderweireld, an owner of Belgian sex clubs who is also a
suspect in the prostitution ring....
The investigation into the prostitution ring in Lille ultimately
swept up 10 suspects, including Strauss-Kahn. They knew one another
largely through their membership as French Freemasons, according to Karl
Vandamme, a defense lawyer who represents Fabrice Paszkowski, the owner
of a medical supply company who played a crucial role in organizing the
sex parties.
‘‘Libertines are people like you and me: people who have a normal
life,’’ said Vandamme, who said his client invested around $65,000 in
party expenses, betting on the political rise of Strauss-Kahn.
I'm sorry, but no, they are not like me.
--more--"
He even looks like a scum.
Also see: Strauss-Kahn Sexcapades
Or don't if you don't have the stomach for it.
And from what I understand his replacement's popularity has been dropping as well. Must have something to do with being around bankers.
