Dominique Strauss-Kahn

The Man of Cloth seems to have made a DSK type of mistake. He arrogantly bought the most beautiful house near the Acropolis worth millions upon millions of euros and then got married in an astronomically lavish Parisian ceremony—all on a ministerial salary of less than 3,000 smackers per month. The Man of Cloth always hated the rich and made a big brouhaha about his lowly origins. He’s accused of laundering the money through Panama and had his new wife pay for the house. He apparently got his daughter involved, thus landing both women in jail as accomplices. No wonder the socialists took such a drubbing in the polls. People such as the Man of Cloth stole and stole and believed the party would never end. Well, it’s finished, and the Greeks are paying for it.

Tsochatzopoulos will get off on a technicality—the statute of limitations. The Greek government has been known to change the law in order to suit its purposes, but not this time. The trouble is that there are many others who are just as greedy and just as crooked. Some of these “gentlemen” have been reelected as I write. The Man of Cloth has threatened to open his personal records and name names. As JFK’s press secretary Pierre Salinger famously said when asked whether he would follow the Kennedy example and hike fifty miles: “I may be plucky, but I ain’t stupid.”

The new bunch of Greek politicians do not wish for open government because Greece is fun in the summer and obtaining a suntan inside Korrydallos Prison is impossible. The best we can hope is that the thieves will stop stealing. But when it comes to giving anything back or being punished for their crimes, fuggedaboutit.

DSK and the Man of Cloth are different but very much alike. They both thought they could get away with monstrous disregard for caution or restraint. A smaller house would have drawn less attention. A less glitzy wedding, ditto. Fewer hookers and more discretion would probably have seen DSK lording it over the French right now. Such are the follies of arrogance. The great moralist Taki has spoken yet again.