Verified by 
Drinkin', cussin', and hyper smilin'
Been ridin' for days, tour bus look like Rikers Island
Hand me jack daniel's, spray paintin' the die hard fan
Little cocker spaniel, fresh out of the damn zoo
Man you, better be conscious, I'm backstage
Livin' it up, with a couple of sluts feelin' nauseous
-- Eminem, Going Crazy
A week ago Saturday, Dominique Strauss-Kahn was hauled off a flight bound for Paris at JFK Airport, and photographed, looking haggard with a slight stubble, in handcuffs. By Monday, he was locked in a prison cell on Rikers Island. By Tuesday, he was put on suicide watch.
Prosecutors have charged Strauss-Kahn with 2 counts of criminal sexual act in the first degree, one count of attempted rape in the first degree, one count of sexual abuse in the first degree, one count of unlawful imprisonment in the second degree, one count of forcible touching, and one count of sexual abuse in the third degree.
He's already lost a lot. On Monday, he learned that the worst charges filed against him, of criminal sexual activity in the first degree, carry a mandatory prison sentence of up to 25 years. On Wednesday, under international pressure, he resigned as head of the International Monetary Fund. And as of today, he may no longer be the leading Socialist Party candidate to oust Nicolas Sarkozy from the presidency of France.
But it's not so much losing their reputations, property or personal contacts that makes incarcerated people depressed. It's losing hope.
History bears that out. Like other judges of Israel -- and like Dominique Strauss-Kahn -- Samson went in to his wife, and he went in to harlots; he also went in to a woman from the valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. Delilah vexed his soul to death; and when she found out the source of his strength, she had his hair cut off. "And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with bronze fetters; and he ground at the mill in the prison" (Judges 16:21). Samson was not put on suicide watch; so when he brought down the house on his own head, 3000 Philistines died with him.
Mark Antony -- like other Roman nobles, like judges of Israel, and like Dominique Strauss-Kahn -- went in to his wives (there were at least 4 of them), and he went in to harlots; he also went in to a woman from Egypt, whose name was Cleopatra. And after Cleopatra led his ships away in retreat from his last fight, Antony fell on his own sword; then Cleopatra was put on suicide watch. "I am a prisoner," Plutarch had her complain to a guard, "become a slave's body, and they watch over it only to make me adorn their triumph." Not guarded carefully enough, she gave her arm to an asp.
But for Dominique Strauss-Kahn, all may not be lost. Last Friday, looking much better in his suit and Cartier watch, he walked out of Rikers Island, and was released into the custody of his wife. The Great Seducer, la Porsche tranquille (Francois Mitterand was known as la force tranquille, or the Quiet Strength; DSK drives a Porsche), the caviar leftist and bourgeois bohemian, or bobo, has been cut slack in homeland before, and may be cut slack in his homeland again.
70% of French Socialists believe that the Great Seducer was set up. So do 57% of the French. Though some of his woman acquaintances have called him a randy monkey, a gorilla and a rutting chimpanzee, his man friends, like the philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, find him "charming, seductive, yes, certainly; a friend to women and, first of all, to his own woman, naturally, but this brutal and violent individual, this wild animal, this primate, obviously no, it's absurd." Jean-Francois Kahn, editor of the Marianne Weekly, asks, "Why all the fuss? It's merely a bit of hanky-panky with the help;" and law professor Jack Lang deadpans, "Really, nobody died in that hotel room."
Not least, Ms Dominique Strauss-Kahn is standing by her man. She was always ambitious for him. Asked in 2006 by L'Express if she was bothered by his womanizer tag, she said: "No! I'm even proud of it. It's important to seduce, for a politician. As long as he is still attracted to me, and I to him, it is sufficient." Then there was her statement of faith last week: "I don't believe for a single second the accusations of sexual assault by my husband. I am certain his innocence will be proven."
His accuser has a different perspective. A 32-year-old widowed single mother, a Muslim immigrant from Guinea with a 16-year-old daughter, she went about her business as a maid at the Sofitel in a headscarf, known as a hard working woman who kept to herself. "She was very serious and very discreet," said the owner of an African American restaurant where she sometimes worked a second shift. Her family has been moved to an undisclosed location. "She's not afraid of the process," her defense lawyer says. "She's afraid there are people out there who might want to try to hurt her or hurt her daughter."
