In this courtroom drawing, Dominique Strauss-Khan, center, is flanked by NYPD Police officers and other defendants awaiting arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, where Strauss-Khan faced charges for the alleged attack Saturday on a maid who at his penthouse suite at a hotel, in New York.Elizabeth Williams/The Associated Press
While much of the world has followed the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case with great concern, France is again showcasing its comparative advantage in misplaced outrage. Manuel Valls, a prominent member of France's Socialist Party, said he had tears in his eyes watching "cruel" television images of Dominique Strauss-Kahn's arrest in New York. Mr. Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, was led away in handcuffs, facing charges related to an alleged sexual attack.
Let's not forget who the alleged victim is in this case. It is not Mr. Strauss-Kahn, distinguished economist and politician, denizen of $3,000-a-night hotel rooms, but the New York hotel chambermaid who says he tried to rape her after she entered his suite.
Mr. Strauss-Kahn is accused of serious crimes: attempted rape, sex abuse, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching. According to the maid, he chased her down a hallway, grabbed her breasts, tried to pull down her pantyhose and force her to perform oral sex.
The court will decide his guilt or innocence.
And yet there is a disturbing attitude among some in France's political and media elite of viewing perpetrators as victims, and of dismissing this criminal case as a puritanical attack on a self-confessed libertine. Indeed, the editor of the newspaper Libération said France was shocked because a politician was arrested on "a matter of morals."
Even before the alleged crime, there were serious questions about Mr. Strauss-Kahn's suitability for the crucial role of IMF head, given public claims of coercive sexual behaviour, including a 2008 affair with an IMF subordinate. In the words of Elena Salgado, Spain's Finance Minister: "If I had to show my solidarity and support for someone, it would be toward the woman who has been assaulted, if that is really the case." The complainant is a single mother, a Muslim immigrant from Guinea.
There is pressure mounting for Mr. Strauss-Kahn, who was denied bail and remains in a New York jail, to resign from his position. This too should not be viewed as a cause for self-pity, or an attack on a favourite son of France. Rather, someone in this role must have integrity and self-respect, and be willing to abide by the law.
If the charges in this case prove to be true, that will be the time for our tears. And then we will shed them not for Mr. Strauss-Kahn, but for the woman he violated.