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Maureen Dowd Compares DSK Mess To, Um, Iraq
By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 3, 2011
Modified Jul 3, 2011
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 3, 2011
Modified Jul 3, 2011
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Finally, NY Times op-ed columnist Maureen Dowd is weighing in on the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case, which has turned from the authorities believing they had a strong sexual assault case against the leading international politician to revelations that the accuser has been lying a lot. She begins, "So what’s the moral of this Manhattan immorality tale? That the French are always right, even when their hauteur is irritating? They were right about Iraq and America’s rush to war. And they may be right about Dominique Strauss-Kahn and America’s rush to judgment."
She continues:
In both cases, French credibility was undermined, so we resisted seeing things from their point of view.
France tried to block W.’s spun-up attack on Iraq, but we knew that the French government had a history of making special oil deals with Saddam Hussein, and of favoring expediency over principle.
France refused to believe that DSK could force himself on a Sofitel maid, but we knew that French society had a history of shielding powerful and talented men accused of scandalous behavior with young women.
W. created a fake deadline and casus belli on Iraq, but New York prosecutors had a real deadline before Strauss-Kahn flew away to France, which does not have an extradition treaty with the United States.
Dowd also looks at the new developments and the maid's credibility, deciding, "When a habitual predator faces off against a habitual liar, the liar will most likely lose, even if it is the rare case when she is telling the truth."
Yesterday, the Daily News' Joanna Molloy wrote, "Okay, her credibility is as wobbly as a three-legged chair, but that doesn't mean she wasn't attacked. Her shakiness as a witness doesn't change the fact that the horny Frenchman (wait, is that redundant?) left his DNA on her uniform," and the NY Post's Andrea Peyser said, "So Dominique Strauss-Kahn is probably not a maid-mangling sex fiend. Don't pop the French bubbly just yet. The lowlife frog was revealed yesterday as something twisted... As soon as he was done getting oral sex, Strauss-Kahn checked out of the hotel as fast as a scared bunny. Then he had lunch with his 26-year-old daughter, as if nothing special had happened."
Tagged
accuser
america
dominique strauss-kahn
france
iraq
Justice
lying
maureen dowd
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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