Socialist Man

A friend of mine writes:

This man is innocent until proven guilty, BUT...

I have to admit. The thought of an elitist, multiculturalist, jet-setting, Frog-bureaucrat-snob ENA professor turned IMF President who was a likely Socialist candidate for President of France, sitting in the pokey in downtown Manhattan for jumping out of his hotel bathroom naked and trying to manhandle a chambermaid is a little too good to be true.

I had a good chuckle over that one. He writes, of course, about Dominique Strauss-Kahn, erstwhile IMF head. I continuously marvel at the enormous sense of entitlement guys like this seem to have, especially since most, like Strauss-Kahn, never seem to hold a real job.

Strauss-Kahn is a conspicuous consumer in Paris's fashionable quarters and he always flies first class for free on Air France. He stays in a $3000/night hotel room. You know who pays for that? Me and you. I love the fact that he asked the pilots to hold up the takeoff of his flight when he was waiting - he thought - for his cell phone to be delivered.

Women are apparently something he just takes when it pleases him, assuming they didn't kick too hard. A chambermaid, sure, I'll have that. Just an unimportant African girl whereas I, I am Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the IMF and future president of France! And, mon Dieu, it was only une fellation. Une petit chose!

What kills me is that these leftist elites are just that - elites. They supposedly represent the common man but would never actually be caught dead with one. And someone else always seems to pay their bills.

Don't get me wrong, the left does not corner the market in hypocrisy. The right will always have the occasional preening moralist who keeps a mistress or two on the side. The difference is this: a conservative philosophy recognizes man's fallacies, and as such seeks limits to power. Limited government limits the reach of avaricious politicians and officious bureaucrats. On the other hand, Obama, Soros, and all the other sherry-sipping globalists who hang out in Davos want to hand over the keys to people like Strauss-Kahn. He is, after all, the very embodiment of sophistication and certainly knows best how the rest of us should be living our lives. His moral trespasses come with the territory in any great man. The rest of us are unsophisticated rubes to expect such men to live by the pedestrian conventions of the middle class.

Monsieur Strauss-Kahn, enjoy the hospitality of the New York penal system. I'm sure your fellow inmates will revel in your bon mots and tales from the corridors of power. Just don't pick up the soap.

(Incidentally, for a great read on this general subject, I highly recommend Intellectuals by Paul Johnson.)