"Cleaning Up": the Second Tell-Tale Action in the Story of the Socialist and the Housekeeper

Following upon the results of some slightly tardy due diligence on the part of the prosecutor’s office, the credibility of Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s accuser is now in tatters and she has exposed herself (my opinion only here) to, minimally, perjury charges on about six different fronts. Strauss-Kahn’s bail was lifted yesterday and the dropping of all charges appears the inevitable next and final step of the case.

When the story first broke, however, it was he-said-she-said. Naturally, one looks at all kinds of details to bolster one story or the other, including the actions of those involved.

Ben Stein early on strongly condemned the almost universal presumption of Strauss-Kahn's guilt. (Let the record reflect the broadmindedness demonstrated here of a right leaning capitalist defending a socialist.) Conversely, Strauss-Kahn’s action immediately following the incident (whatever comprised it) compelled me to take a different view.

Strauss-Kahn fled the hotel, they said, leaving behind personal articles, including his cell phone. He was seated in a first-class seat on a Paris-bound Air France flight when police arrested him.

He was so anxious to decamp that he was willing to leave behind his cell phone??? He must have done it! Of course, in retrospect, other reasons - flight from blackmail, escaping of false charges - for such a hasty departure suggest themselves. At the time, in the absence of strong counterveiling evidence, however, it was confirmation of his guilt.

In the same vein but more acutely telling, from my perspective, is the newly corrected statement by his accuser of her actions immediately following the incident (whatever comprised it).

Prosecutors said the woman lied to a grand jury by testifying she immediately alerted a supervisor about the assault.

The maid actually cleaned a neighboring suite on the 28th floor and then scrubbed Strauss-Kahn's room before she reported the incident to her boss.

No. It strains credulity to breaking that a woman who had just suffered what her attorney termed a "terrible sexual assault" would simply pick herself up and proceed to clean two rooms, including that of her assailant, before advising her supervisor of the alleged assault.

Prosecutors have also determined that, less than two days after the alleged attack, the accuser called her boyfriend and told him

Don’t worry, this guy has a lot of money. I know what I’m doing.

It appears that after she calmly cleaned the two hotel rooms, she intended to clean up again - this time, in a very different way.