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A Week of Shocks but Few Surprises
· Saturday, May 21, 2011
They were open secrets. Everyone knew. And maybe the lesson this week is that people should pay more attention to what they know.
Everyone knew Newt Gingrich was combustible, that he tended to blow things up, including, periodically, himself. He was impulsive, living proof that people confuse "a good brain" with "good judgment." He had bad judgment, which is why he famously had a hundred ideas a day and only 10 were good. He didn't know the difference and needed first-rate people around to tell him. But the best didn't work with him anymore, because he was unsteady, unreliable, more likely to be taken with insight-seizures than insights.
He was the smartest guy in the room, who didn't notice the rooms had gotten smaller. So he was running his own show. Boom.
In his famous "Meet the Press" interview, he was trying to differentiate himself from the field. He was likely thinking he'd go for the Mike Huckabee vote now that Mr. Huckabee is gone. That vote is populist-tinged, socially conservative but generally supportive of big-government programs. Newt's party and competitors support Paul Ryan's budget-cutting plan. Newt didn't think all aspects of that plan would go over with the American public.
If he'd said that, he would have been fine, and there were lots of ways to say it. Such as: "The Ryan plan is serious and courageous. But I oppose changes in the delivery system of Medicare and think we should go another route, so I do not support that aspect of it."
Instead he used slashing, dramatic language and seemed to damn the entire enterprise. The Ryan plan isn't flawed, it's "right-wing social engineering." It's "imposing radical change."
After the firestorm he went on a political perp walk, more or less denying he'd said what he said, and then blaming it on others. This was followed by reports he had been in hock to Tiffany's -- Tiffany's! -- for up to half a million dollars. This is decidedly unpopulist behavior, and to Republicans sounded too weird, too frivolous, flaky and grand.
I said last week I had yet to meet a Gingrich 2012 voter. Now I won't have a chance to.
People in journalism are surprised. But they wouldn't have been surprised if they'd been paying attention to what they know: that Newt blows things up, including himself.
***
The allegations against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who stepped down as chief of the International Monetary Fund after being charged with seven counts including attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment, are just that, allegations. He's been indicted, not convicted. But half the French establishment knew about what they called his woman problem, and at least one previous accusation of harassment. It was an open secret. "Everyone knows that Dominique Strauss-Kahn is a libertine," said Gilles Savary, a member of the European Parliament Socialist party. He "doesn't try to hide it."
DSK, as he's known, is almost a classic villain -- elegant, august, satyrlike in his multithousand-dollar suits and his multithousand-dollar suite. He is the perfect "champagne socialist," as they're now calling him, who preys on the weak -- for who is less defended and more at the mercy of the world than a 32-year-old hotel maid, a widow, a West African immigrant working to support herself and her daughter?
But what is most startling about the story is not the charge that a powerful man did a dreadful thing. It is the utter and profound difference between the U.S. response to the story and the French response.
America was immediately sympathetic to the underdog. The impulse of every media organization, from tabloid to broadsheet to cable to network, was to side with the powerless one in the equation. The cops, the hotel's managers, the District Attorney's office -- everyone in authority gave equal weight and respect to the word of the maid. Only in America (and not always in America) would they have taken the testimony of the immigrant woman from Africa and dragged the powerful man out of his first-class seat in the jet at JFK.
In France, the exact opposite. There, from the moment the story broke, DSK was the victim, not the villain. It was a setup, a trap, a conspiracy. He has a weakness for women. No, he loves them too much. Hairy-chested poseur and Sarkozy foreign-policy adviser Bernard-Henri Levy sneeringly referred to "the chambermaid," brayed about DSK's high standing, and called him "a friend to women." Jean Daniel, editor of Le Nouvel Observateur, sniffily asked why "the supposed victim was treated as worthy and beyond suspicion."
Why wouldn't she be treated as worthy, buddy? One is tempted to ask if it's the black part, the woman part or the immigrant part.
As David Rieff wrote in The New Republic, to French intellectuals, DSK deserves special treatment because he is a valuable person. "The French elites' consensus seems to be that it is somehow Strauss-Kahn himself and not the 32-year-old maid who is the true victim of this drama."
Americans totally went for the little guy. The French went for the power.
Lafayette would weep.
Someone once sniffed, "In America they call waiters 'Sir.' " Bien sur, my little bonbon. It's part of our unlost greatness.
The French are a very great people. They have filled the world with so much beauty, you have to wonder if God didn't send them down here just for that. As David McCullough observes in his tender new book, "The Greater Journey," generations of Americans, starting in 1820 or so, journeyed to Paris to learn the best in art, medicine, science and literature. They came back and filled our nation with the innovation and expertise they'd acquired there. The French didn't just enrich us, they helped America become itself.
Today they are great talkers, but for all their talk of emotions, and they do talk about emotions, they need, on this story at least, an attitude adjustment. They need to grow a heart. If the charges are true, this isn't a story about sex, romance and the war between men and women, it is about violence, and toward a person who is almost a definition of powerlessness.
Their mindless snobbery is unworthy of them.
***
We finish with Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has finished himself. The scandal surrounding him this week is not precisely a public concern. He is not now holding office, and if he had plans or further ambitions in that area they are over. The story is not shocking -- he has admitted bad behavior in the past, there have been longtime rumors, "Everyone knows." But still it took you aback. Why? The level of creepiness and the nature of the breach. The mother of the former governor's child worked for him, for them, for 20 years -- another unequal power arrangement -- meaning 20 years of fiction had to be maintained. "In my home!" as Michael Corleone said in "Godfather II." "Where my wife sleeps . . . and my children play with their toys." The rotten taste of this story will not fade soon.
Human sin is a constant, none are free, and anyone who is shocked by it is a fool or lying. Even so, what a week, full of human surprises. But we wouldn't be so surprised if we paid more attention to what we know, and built our expectations from there.
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Jeremy
Speaking of the French, you write, "Their mindless snobbery is unworthy of them." Is this supposed to be a joke? After all, "mindless snobbery" is the defining characteristic of the French...
Posted May 21, 2011 at 6:12:36 AM
The Lunatic
Part Four (which really should be Part One)
"They were open secrets. Everyone knew. And maybe the lesson this week is that people should pay more attention to what they know."
Barack Insane Ubama tipped his hand, and openly incited and encouraged the Arab Jew-haters in their newest attacks on Israel.
Everyone knew it was within the question of the Jew Problem that Ubama's true colors showed most clearly. There that his frothing ideologies most plainly obscured any hint of reason. There that his pretense to giving a flip about the appropriate comportment of a Head of State grew thinnest. And there, instead where there most readily appeared the Arrogant Punk, that we've all come to know and loathe, so fondly.
A story in Rueters generously constates, "The idea of the '67 borders had always been assumed to be the starting point of negotiations, but this is the first time a US President has named it openly as our Policy." A lie from the pit of Hell Mr Faceless Rueter. Assumed by whom, may we ask?
Mr Netanyahu begs to differ it seems. As every life loving Israeli begs to differ. And as every honest American supporter of Israel's right to exist also differs.
It was for Bibi's benefit that this madness was rushed into the Public Square, as an evident pre-emption to Netanyahu's planned speech before our Congress. All the posturing, as if to pretend that this administration were actually in alignment with historical elements of support for our ally, did nothing to hide the most unsurprising shock of all.
At a time when Israel is confronted with a series of events on the international stage that most plainly threaten her existence, when Islamists are on the march across the Middle East, while Ubama stands at their side hoisting the false flag of a rising "Democratic Movement", and not two full days after the Facebook Intifada (precisely like the one that our gang of leftists helped engineer in Egypt, to take down Israel's one begrudging friend in the region)lead to simultaneous mob attacks on three of Israel's borders, this Punk searches out the perfect moment to offer up Israel on a platter to the frenzied hordes of Death Worshippers that he desperately hopes might come to adore him.
Glad if I could help, Peggy!
Posted May 21, 2011 at 7:48:37 AM
Howard Last
There was no shock or surprise in what Gingrich did. It was just fortunate that it came out before he was in serious consideration as a candidate. God does work in mysterious ways. He is a liberal in conservative clothing. Remember in 95 when kommandant klinton started closing parks and monuments and Gingrich could not jump fast enough to pass the budget. He castigated House members that would not go along. How many bureaus, agencies, departments, rules, regulations, laws, etc. were abolished or repealed when he was Speaker? And of course Gingrich is a CFR member. He owes his allegiance to a foreign entity that wants to overthrow the U.S. Say isn't this the definition of treason? All I can say is good riddance.
Posted May 21, 2011 at 4:25:17 PM
Brujo Blanco
Sounds like Strauss-Kahn is a French Bill Clinton. A PC elite sexual predator.
It appears that Obama is showing his true colors. Antisemitic Muslim. Anyone with an ounce of common sense would know that giving back land taken under the 1967 situation will result in the deaths of Jews. How does Obama spell Nazi?
Posted May 21, 2011 at 4:49:44 PM
George
How interesting that the race card is left snugly in its place in the DSK issue.
Of course, liberal socialists incapable of racism - we all know that.
But, just let your mind wander and imagine if some rich, powerful, white and right wing had abused a minority with the aplomb as did DSK.....
Posted May 22, 2011 at 8:23:24 AM
Paulette Altmaier
Yes, America has behaved better than France in the Strauss-Kahn case, but in another similar case not so long ago, we behaved precisely the same. When Paula Jones accused Bill Clinton of extreme sexual harrassment (state troopers to escort a low level employee to the governor who then behaves obscenely?), our media and champagne liberals reacted exactly as the French are - trashed the powerless woman and defended the powerful man....
Posted May 22, 2011 at 1:26:21 PM
sunforester
Nice to meet you, I am a Newt for President voter. Newt shared his thinking that was not the "official" party line, and now you put him on the DOA list. What a shame that you have no room for moderation, no room for tolerance of the middle, and no concept of what Republicans need to win the election in 2012.
Newt is an excellent candidate, and all those who cling to ideological purity now can't get away from him fast enough. I think that makes him far more electable than anyone else the Republicans could possibly recruit.
You write Newt off as if you know what is best for we the people, yet with all the Republican candidates scrutinized so closely that no one can run, you are putting Obama back into office. Shame on you, you ideological zealot. Might as well label you a shill for the Democrat Party, for all the help you are giving Obama.
Tell Newt you are sorry, and we both will forgive you.
Posted May 22, 2011 at 7:30:21 PM
sunforester
Ladies and gentlemen, we are witnesses to a world-class, state-of-the-art political assassination that dropped Strauss-Kahn in his tracks as surely as a sniper shot.
Ask yourself: why would a hotel maid remain in a room for more than a few seconds if she realized it was occupied? Why would the future president of France in a $3000 per night hotel room even consider sex with an unattractive African hotel maid, when all he has to do is pick up the phone and 10 minutes later greet a smiling, gorgeous, top-shelf $500 hooker?
Somebody very, very powerful with police and media influence wanted Strauss-Kahn neutralized. That mission was accomplished successfully, no doubt with the help of our police and media. The one thing that Strauss-Kahn neglected to do was keep the deadbolt on his hotel door while he was inside the room.
Gentlemen, the lesson here is that the other side is getting nastier every day, and our police and media are happy to help. Keep your deadbolt locked on your hotel door at all times unless you want to be taken out by the same calibre bullet that hit Strauss-Kahn.
Posted May 23, 2011 at 11:51:08 AM
MO
Sunforester, you are too creepy!!
Posted May 23, 2011 at 4:25:29 PM
Abu Nudnik
Courts decide whether accusers are more believable than the accused, not the police. I guess the French don't know that.
The French have certainly given us much culturally but not much since the wars of the 20th century. Not a single great painter has emerged since Picasso and Matisse. Their culture is corrupt. To think how many American lives were lost defending her!
As for the Governator, at least he owned up and, despite the creepiness, took some measure of responsibility for his offspring.
As for Gingrich.... la-de-da!
Posted May 23, 2011 at 8:25:51 PM
Ed
Has Bill Clinton said a word after the DSK scandal broke?
Posted May 24, 2011 at 12:43:26 PM
sunforester
Tawana Brawley wasn't creepy, she was a complete hoax that put Al Sharpton on the map. What the Duke lacrosse players were put through wasn't creepy, but the hoax nearly destroyed them.
There is plenty of precedent for women who lie about rape to get money, attention or both. Those who help these women benefit from the lie, like Sharpton, get away clean. There is a long tradition of women using men by crying "rape," and THAT isn't creepy, but reality.
Don't be fooled - not all women tell the truth, and we have plenty of history of just that.
Posted May 30, 2011 at 7:02:12 PM