The political aspirations of the International Monetary Fund managing director, a former French Finance Minister who had great power in France, are pretty much dead.
On Saturday morning, “DSK” (as he is known among peers and the political and financial media) was poised to mount a credible challenge to Nicolas Sarkozy for France's presidency.
But by Monday morning, Sarkozy was sitting in the Elysee Palace with wife Carla Bruni probably wondering how his rival, someone so apparently smart, could be so utterly stupid.
French media and talk-back radio chat in New York on Monday raised the idea of conspiracy theories – suggesting Sarkozy had instigated the scandal, plotting and planting a “chambermaid” to tempt DSK into a compromising situation. He had a cheery reputation as a lady's man after all – something the French have no interest in.
The truth is probably a lot simpler but it must be stated clearly there is an unbridgeable difference between the ability to charm women into bed, even if you are married and the subject of your affection is not your wife, and attempting rape.
The New York Police Department still has to compile a watertight case but DSK's high visibility perp walk in front of photographers, as well as the Sofitel hotel's support of its housekeeping staff, suggests cops are confident.
Certainly, the alleged circumstances of the allegations do not place Strauss-Kahn in the best light, regardless of his candidacy for French president.
According to reports, as the 32-year-old woman was cleaning Strauss-Kahn's $3000 a night suite, the IMF head emerged from the bathroom naked, chased her down a hallway and pulled her into a bedroom.
The NYPD claim Strauss-Kahn then dragged the hotel worker into the bathroom, where he forced her to perform oral sex on him and tried to remove her underwear. The woman broke free and escaped.
When police arrived at the hotel after receiving an emergency call, Strauss-Kahn had checked out. He later called the hotel to claim his cell phone was missing. Police used that opportunity to get Strauss-Kahn to reveal he was at JFK airport about to board a plane to France.
In a scene out of Law & Order: SUV, police then boarded the Air France plane on the tarmac, 10 minutes before it was scheduled to take off for Paris, and arrested Strauss-Kahn as he sat in the aircraft's First Class section. He is pleading not guilty and claims he was not even in the hotel room at the time of the alleged assault.
But then on Monday, things got a little tighter for DSK. Tristane Banon, a French journalist, revealed that she was allegedly assaulted by Strauss-Kahn in 2002 and told to keep quiet about that attack.
As Sarkozy will be saying, it all adds up for the IMF boss who should be more focused on the problems with the economies of Portugal and Greece. The maths, though, aren't great.
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