If it was a setup, he'd still have to want to have sex with a 33 year old Nigerian immigrant who was cleaning his hotel room. That seems awfully 9-11 conspiracy kind of thing to me.

Have you seen Wienergate? Famous/powerful man do very, very, strange things.

I don't think a setup is particularly far fetched at all. I mean, I'm not sold on the idea, but I'm also unconvinced DSK raped some African. First of all, how do you force oral sex? I mean, anything is possible - but I'd likely use my teeth. Heh.

Also, lots of men will fuck anything. So if this girl came on to him, no matter what she looked like...free sex at his age? Unlikely he's going to turn it down.

Again, not sold on the conspiracy theory, it's just a passing thought. One that I doubt is as difficult as you make it out to be. Nearly anything in politics is achievable, and hardly far fetched. Especially when you're talking political sex scandals. Politics is filthy.

He's previously been painted as an unwanted aggressor.

In 2008, Aurelie Filippetti, a French lawmaker and Socialist Party member, told Swiss newspaper Le Temps she once had to fend off a "very heavy, very high-pressure" come-on from Strauss-Kahn. "I made it a point to not find myself alone with him in a closed place," Filippetti told the newspaper.

Tristane Banon, a 31-year-old French journalist and writer, publicly claimed that Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her when she went to interview him in 2002. Banon did not disclose the alleged attack at the time. But after the New York allegations, her attorney said she would likely file a legal complaint after the new case is resolved.

Months after taking up his IMF post in late 2007, Strauss-Kahn launched a brief affair with Piroska Nagy, a married, Hungarian-born economist who worked for the organization. The IMF board hired an outside law firm to investigate after the affair became public knowledge.

The board found Strauss-Kahn responsible for what he admitted had been "a serious error of judgment." But the board concluded "there was no harassment, favoritism or any other abuse of authority," so he kept his job.

The outcome didn't square with the account of Nagy, who wrote to the board that "I was damned if I did and damned if I didn't" accede to Strauss-Kahn's advances. She also wrote that he was "a man with a problem that may make him ill-equipped to lead an institution where women work under his command."

Sexus Politicus, a 2006 tell-all book by Christophe Dubois and Christophe Deloire, included a chapter on Strauss-Kahn's private life that depicted him as taking unnecessary sexual risks for a high public official. Deloire said a lawyer representing Strauss-Kahn read the chapter and tried to prevent publication with the threat of a libel action.
"But the book came out and they did nothing," said Deloire in an interview last week.

When Strauss-Kahn was nominated for the IMF post, Jean Quatremer of French daily newspaper Libération wrote on his blog: "Strauss-Kahn's only real problem is his behavior with women. Too pushy, he often narrowly escapes (charges) of harassment. This fault of his is well-known by the media, but no one speaks about it."

In an interview last week, Quatremer said he witnessed the surprise of a female journalist friend during the late 1990s when Strauss-Kahn offered her his mobile phone number and a dinner invitation to the economic ministry. "His intentions were so clear that the woman was in shock," Quatremer said.

I'm with Matty on this one.

Also, if it was a setup, when she hit him and he bled all over the bed, why didn't he go right to the police? Why didn't he run out of the hotel room and say "whoa this chick just blew me and then hit me with a sharp object, I'd like to file a complaint". Instead, he fled the scene as quickly as possible leaving his cell phone behind.

How often do you think chamber maids go into hotel rooms to clean the room and end up consensually blowing a random patron that they have never met before? Further, how often does this happen where there is blood involved, physical lacerations to the patron, and semen on the carpet?

If it's a setup, hats off to the guys that pulled this one off! Probably the same people who helped forge Obama's birth certificate.

Whoa there, buddy. I'm saying it's in the realm of possibility, and it's also not half as insane as you make it out to be. Dirty politics is not shocking.

This is no where along the lines of the birther shit, not even a good comparison. I'm not even saying I'm totally sold on the idea. I am saying that your exaggeration about the 'impossibility' of it is kind of ridiculous.

Heh. Now I realize why people haven't engaged you in this topic, Matt.

We're not talking about killing people. We're actually talking about a sex scandal. I'm the first person to take rape seriously. But recognizing who this guy is, the amount of power (and money) he has, it's not such a huge stretch. People (especially poor people) can be bought off for ridiculously low amounts of money. Politics in Europe is equally if not more dirty than the US. I think it's well within the realm of possibility, but AGAIN, I'm not sold one way or the other. I think it's fishy, that's about all I can commit to.

High level politicians in what country? In the US? There are sex scandals and shit going on all around us, but not quite like this one, I'll give you that. If you're asking me to reference straight up dirty politics that has been well executed and dirty (killing people included - not necessarily a sex scandal) - Pinochet? I don't know exactly what you're looking for here.

I definitely find it almost offensive that you compare someone recognizing a possibility that the charges against DSK are a set up, as similar to a being a birther. Guess that's where the debate ends. Cheers.

Actually, according to the poll, more people think your dog did it.

It's not rape, it's an accusation of rape.

That's true (the first part). What do you mean about the second part? That he hasn't been convicted yet or that he never actually raped her, just attempted to rape her? I don't think it's possible to setup the conspiracy to put all the physical evidence in place to accuse rape, is my point. That coupled with everything else I said (bribing THE chamber maid that cleans his room, having him agree to want to have sex with her, etc.)

That he hasn't been convicted yet. I could accuse you of rape, it doesn't mean there was one. Only the two people in that room know what really happened regardless of the evidence that's been made public... evidence which has seemingly been deliberately leaked to the media.

I think you're over thinking the idea of the set up. By all accounts this is a powerful and relatively arrogant man who is sexually aggressive towards women. He's in his hotel room, a maid enters, comes onto him, offers to blow him and you know he's going to accept. How hard is it for her to scratch his back, spit his load out on the floor and leave the room claiming he forced her to perform oral sex on him?

The evidence you keep holding up to validate your opinion may very well be exactly as reported by the media but at this point, we simply do not know. The media, despite what we'd like to believe sometimes, are not known for being factual or unbiased. The fact that a lot of what is being reported is being leaked by the DA's office demonstrates that they have an agenda. If not, lips would be sealed shut out of fear of jeopardising the case.

It's an interesting situation but not one that I believe to be as cut and dry as you've presented here.

I actually find it's much easier to believe that he was set up and approached with a sexual offer that he accepted only for her to cry that something untoward happened than that a man, in his position, with so much to lose would do something this stupid. It's not outside of the possibility that he forced her to perform oral sex but equally, it's not outside the possibility that it was a set up.

Really? Haven't we seen powerful men do stupid thing after stupid thing? I don't find this so hard to believe at all.