DSK, scumbag

By Michael J.W. Stickings

In what I can only assume is his ongoing campaign to be confirmed the world's #1 scumbag, at least in the euro-politician category, former IMF head and otherwise disgraced French bigwig Dominique Strauss-Kahn is now taking his proclivity for assault to court: 

It's been just about a year since Dominique Strauss-Kahn was accused of sexually assaulting a housekeeper at New York's Sofitel Hotel. In the time since, he's also come under scrutiny for other accusations: for attempted rape in France, for failing to pay his U.S. taxes, and for ties to a prostitution ring. Would all that have come to light if Nafissatou Diallo, the housekeeper in question, hadn't come forward with her allegations? Who knows! But Strauss-Kahn and his lawyers are implying as much. They're suing the woman for more than $1 million in punitive damages, even as her civil case against him wends its way through the court system, despite his attempt at claiming diplomatic immunity.

He's got some seriously tough competition from former Italian Prime Minister Silvio "bunga bunga" Berlusconi, among others, but his scumbaggery, mixed with a self-aggrandizing sense of entitlement that dwarfs even Romney's, is undeniably enormous.

DSK resigns (in criminal shame)

By Michael J.W. Stickings

NYT:

Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned Wednesday as head of the International Monetary Fund after explosive allegations that he had sexually attacked a cleaning lady in a midtown Manhattan hotel room.

"It is with infinite sadness that I feel compelled today to present to the Executive Board my resignation from my post of Managing Director of the IMF," he said in a statement issued Wednesday. "I think at this time first of my wife -- whom I love more than anything -- of my children, of my family, of my friends."

*****

In issuing his resignation Wednesday, Mr. Strauss-Kahn said, "I want to say that I deny with the greatest possible firmness all of the allegations that have been made against me."

Innocent until proven guilty. Yes, yes, yes.

But I still call bullshit.

The guy's got a history, after all, and, much like Berlusconi, he probably thought he could use (and abuse) women (and especially young, vulnerable women) at will.

(Am I unfairly jumping to conclusions? Please.)

(By the way, I suspect he'll either get off, pun intended, or be convicted on reduced charges given a lack of evidence. He'll still have his apologists in France, but there's no way he recovers from this.)