Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Anne Sinclair

Glover is right in calling DSK a chauvinist sexual predator and depicting him as untrustworthy, greedy, and unscrupulous. He is all that and more. But his wife is just as tricky, as is her billion-dollar fortune, one that derives from her grandfather Rosenberg’s art dealership. Rosenberg’s deals were as shady as Wildenstein’s, but unlike the latter he never got caught. Daniel Wildenstein I knew quite well from my El Morocco nights during the 50s in the Bagel. He was an awful man, always complaining about the waiters or not having the right table—you know the kind. Back then we used to get into fights quite regularly over women—nothing serious—if one went down, that was the end of it. I never hit Wildenstein because he was so skinny, ugly, and miserable, although if anyone deserved a knuckle sandwich it was he. There were rumors galore about his dishonesty, but the French always covered things up, as they tend to do.

He is now dead, and his son Guy is being investigated for a massive fraud, which obviously I cannot comment upon although I know that he’s guilty as hell on the principle of “like father, like son.” I used to play a lot of polo with Guy Wildenstein in Paris and he was perfectly behaved but no one among us liked him. I cannot put my finger on it, but he was extremely unlikable, just like his old man. I hope he goes down, but the odds are ten to one against. The French protect the rich and powerful—just look at DSK. That other arch-phony, the pseudo-philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, would have been laughed off the campus of a school for retarded 12-year-olds, yet he regularly appears on French TV as an advisor to Sarkozy and as a well-informed source. He’s only a source for self-promotion and bullshit, says Greece’s greatest philosopher since Plato. DSK, BHL, Rosenberg, Wildenstein—what did the French people do wrong to deserve such lowlifes? Is it punishment for collapsing so quickly against the Wehrmacht? Or for collaborating so eagerly with the conquerors? (After General Weygand’s collapse, a wit wrote, Veni Vidi Vichy!). It could also be that since the French have such a beautiful country and Paris is the most beautiful city on Earth, God made sure the French people have DSK, BHL, Rosenberg, and Wildenstein to balance things out.

As I write this sitting among the lavender and rosemary in my garden, I see a large limo pulling up at the Palace. A short, disgusting fat man with bulging eyes is getting out, followed by his rich-looking wife. Oh my God, say it ain’t so.