Jude Collins

Saturday 2 July 2011

Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Michael Healy-Rea - a rare pair


Think about Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Grey-haired, handsome, wealthy, sophisticated. The head of the IMF, hotly tipped to win the French presidency from Nicolas Sarkozy. Then suddenly he came crashing to earth in spectacular style, as he was taken off a plane at JFK and charged with raping a hotel chambermaid. The network cameras captured him in shame, doing the ‘perp walk’ - between burly cops, surrounded by press, dishevelled, on his way to a cell. French presidency? Forget it. Head of IMF? Forget it. All gone, gone utterly. Apparently.

Think about Michael Healy-Rea. I’m not sure what colour his hair is because he always wears a cap, just as his father Jackie Healy-Rea did. He’s moon-faced more than handsome, he doesn’t look wealthy and he’s certainly not sophisticated. He’s an independent TD, tipped to squeeze maybe a few concessions out of the Irish government for Kerry. You couldn’t say he came crashing to earth because he never flew too high; but he finds himself a figure of contempt, paying back approximately £2,000 on phone-calls made from Leinster House . These calls were made by a person or persons unknown, and they helped Healy-Rea win some TV celebrity reality show or other. Healy-Rea swears he didn’t make them and he doesn’t know who did. But he’s going to pay for them because he says, if he doesn’t, people will never shut up about it and assume it was him. As it is they keep making jokes about the Ring of Kerry.

What have the two men got in common? Not a lot. DSK is famous in France for his womanizing – one of the great seducers, apparently. And you can see how that might be – he looks more like a movie star than a finance man or a politician. Strain though I will, I can’t see MHR doing a lot of seducing, although when Kerry charm is involved all things are possible.

Why have I linked the two men, then? Because both were accused of a crime – DSK of rape, MHR of rigging the results of a reality show at the tax-payers’ expense. In the case of DSK, the charge appeared to have totally destroyed his public career. But now the case against him is collapsing – the prosecutor has effectively rejected the credibility of their own chief witness. Was it all a set-up in the first place? Who knows. But for MHR, no deus ex machina, at least not so far. The assumption is that he done it and that’s why he’s paying for it.

Which runs completely counter to justice. The fact that DSK headed an organisation that has brought Ireland to its financial knees and is busy kicking it in the financial teeth shouldn’t divert us  from the central point: he’s innocent of all charges until they’re proven. The same applies to Healy-Rea: the fact that he’s half-embarrassment, half-Kerry joke in the eyes of many people shouldn’t let us to forget that so far, nobody has come forward with evidence that he was guilty of anything. Beyond wearing a daft cap, talking in a deeply Kerry accent and participating in a TV reality show.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn is innocent, Michael Healy-Rea is innocent. If we disagree, then we’re saying we choose trial-by-TV and mob prejudice over rational judgement. Don’t feel bad about it if that's where you stand. You’ve got lots of company.

12 comments:

  1. Amazing what men think is 'attractive' in other men...if DSK wasn't 'wealthy' how many people would find him attractive...? Not many I wager...As for the Ring-tone of Kerry...are there no mirrors in Ireland...?
    Sexual assault is NOT seduction btw I know a lot of men don't 'get' that but hey...just thought I'd mention it...

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think the Americans call it a perp walk not a perv walk Jude.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think it was Michael's father (or someone in Michael's father's office) that many believe to have been responsible for the calls Jude. Michael happened to benefit from someone phoning in support of him and choose to repay the money that came from the public purse. The programme went out before MHR became a TD.

    Seamus

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anon 13:57: - right, right , right. Thanks for, um, keeping me on the straight and narrow - will correct immediately...

    ReplyDelete
  5. The source of the 'Le Perv' tag came from a headline in some 'news' rag

    ReplyDelete
  6. An objective opinion is not possible. Human reason is always entwined with emotion. We are all subjectively objective...like the USA. Even yours, Jude :D

    One's position in life does inform the legal system, though...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Mmmm. I still think we have to demand evidence before we shout 'Guilty!' But beyond that I agree - we all come at the world from our own angle.

    ReplyDelete
  8. The Grand Jury decided there was enough evidence to go to trial...the test for Prosecutors this side of the pond is 'is there sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction'...However according to a US source DSK waved his big old wad and got a 'Private Dick' to dig the dirt on the 'maid'...the DA's office allegedly gave the findings of the pooper scooper to the NYT...so the issue is now HER credibility...!
    Ain't it always the way in sex cases...it's always the complainant..read woman...who lacks credibility...!
    Talking of venerable organs kinda...the Irish version thereof seems to think that having bail conditions lifted is the same as being 'freed without bail'...Duh...!
    You just can't get the staff...s'pose that's why they have to lift so much from mere commenters...

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anon 14:04 - I'm open-mouthed (if that's the image I want) with wonder at your legal expertise. "And still they gaz'd, and still the wonder grew/That one small head could carry all he knew"...

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hope that's not sarcasm, Jude..

    ReplyDelete
  11. Just because the Prosecution can't prove guilt to the required standard doesn't prove innocence...just that they can't prove guilt...

    Don't worry your baldy 'little' head about it Jude! You clearly don't know enough to know you know nothing...!
    Game set and match to me I think!

    ReplyDelete
  12. But of course. And just for the record I wasn't being ironic - I meant the legal bit. The rest was playful-sorry if you took offence.

    ReplyDelete