It occurred to us that not everybody would understand our reference last week to DSK’s Pepe Le Pew defense in the French criminal case and the American civil case against him. So here, thanks to YouTube, is “Scent-imental,” one of the classic skunk works from Warner Brothers.
And this is the reference in our story last week, when Dominique Strauss-Kahn was interrogated by police in Lille about his alleged connections to a prostitution ring:
… We don’t know exactly what he’ll say in his defense, but judging from his lawyer’s remarks in recent days, we have a suggestion: “Messieurs,” he might begin, “I am, indeed, Pepé Le Pew.”
“Just as that suave, debonair, and wonderfully charming skunk pursued a cat that he mistook for one of his kind, understanding her efforts to escape as coy flirtation, so, too, have I made mistakes now and then,” DSK could explain to the police, as indeed he has explained, in somewhat conspiratorial terms,through a semiofficial biographer. “Did I think that maid at the Sofitel was unwilling? So many women play that game with me. Did I know the women at the parties and orgies I attended in France and Washington and New York were prostitutes? Of course not. Why on earth would I ask? How could I even suspect?”
Maybe you think this isn’t funny, and I admit it isn’t, very. But apart from the name of the skunk, this really is the general line taken by Strauss-Kahn’s defenders….
The French just can’t get enough of DSK’s scandals and the conspiracy theories floated by his defenders. Here are two of our recent articles on the subject:
As a new report feeds into rumors that Dominique Strauss-Kahn was set up, Christopher Dickey debunks the conspiracy theories—and says it’s time for DSK to tell his side of the story.
In a new book that hit French shelves yesterday, the sex scandals and conspiracy theories behind the downfall of Dominique Strauss-Kahn are dissected. Tracy McNicoll on the book’s most explosive charges.
And here’s a question: Are you still interested in this sordid tale?
The Daily Beast: Why Dominique Strauss-Kahn Needs to Tell His Side of the Story, 28 November 2011
As a new report feeds into rumors that Dominique Strauss-Kahn was set up, Christopher Dickey debunks the conspiracy theories—and says it’s time for DSK to tell his side of the story.
The hotel where Dominique Strauss-Kahn allegedly assaulted a maid has been nearly silent—until a report came out that its employees may have been in on a set-up. John Solomon reports.
DSK: What a difference a year makes. Our Newsweek International cover story on Dominique Strauss-Kahn on the stands in November 2010 painted him as the next leader of France, and perhaps the world. Such was the conventional wisdom and the reading of the polls at the time. But the scandals that began to break around him and his womanizing last May, and continue breaking to this day, have made all that seem like ancient history. On the right is the cover of today’s Le Parisien.
After beating two allegations of rape, Dominique Strauss-Kahn now finds himself in a new sex scandal: A prostitute testifying at in inquiry in France has said that Jean-Christophe Lagarde, a chief with France’s national police, and Strauss-Kahn organized an orgy together at a Paris hotel room. Lagarde, who was once favored to run Strauss-Kahn’s protection unit if he became president of France, is also said to have accompanied prostitutes to New York City for Strauss-Kahn. The revelations came during an inquiry into an underage prostitution racket. Strauss-Kahn has not been accused, however, of sleeping with underage girls.
Lawyers for Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the French novelist who says he tried to rape her in 2003 are struggling to spin prosecutors’ decision to drop the attempted rape case yet imply wrongdoing. But Tristane Banon has a weapon: her new book.
