Sex scandal ends bright career of IMF boss, French top runner

The news that former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn had been arrested in New York on charges of attempted rape was met with shock and outrage in France.

Strauss-Kahn, who resigned as head of the IMF a few days after his arrest, was the main Socialist Party candidate for the presidential race in France. According to opinion polls, he could have been a tough competitor to President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The charges bring his political ambitions to a screeching halt, leaving the Socialist Party effectively decapitated. Jacques Attali, a former Socialist presidential advisor, conceded Strauss-Kahn’s presidential hopes were now dashed.
Speaking to the UK’s Daily Telegraph, Attali said, “He cannot be a candidate for (Socialist Party) primaries, nor even (keep his post) at the IMF.”

Even as commentators speculate whether this could all be an elaborate set-up, Strauss-Kahn joins the ignoble league of politicians who have been brought down by scandals of a sexual nature just when they were on the verge of attaining their highest political aspirations.

His group includes former US Democratic Party presidential hopeful John Edwards. In October 2007, allegations emerged of an adulterous affair between Edwards and former campaign worker Rielle Hunter.

By July 2008, several news media outlets speculated that Edwards’ chances of securing the Vice Presidency, as well as other powerful positions such as the attorney general, were greatly damaged by the allegations, which included that he fathered a child with Hunter.
Edwards went on to lose his party’s primaries and dropped his presidential bid. Eventually, he came clean on the affair.

Edwards was not the first Democratic Party nominee to fall by the wayside in similar circumstances: In 1987, Gary Hart was the rising star of American politics, considered the overwhelming favourite for the Democratic Party nomination in the following year’s election.

Despite persistent rumours that he had been having an extramarital affair, Hart challenged the press to follow him around, claiming he had nothing to hide.

A few days later, a woman was seen leaving his house and a photo of him with the same woman sitting on his lap soon emerged. A week later, a thoroughly embarrassed Hart dropped out of the race.

Prostitution ring

Former New York governor Eliot Spitzer was also caught up in a scandal that forced him to resign in the wake of an exposure of his involvement as a client in a high-priced prostitution ring.

Spitzer had served as New York’s attorney general before being elected governor in 2007. Reports emerged in March 2008 that Spitzer had patronised an upmarket prostitution service called Emperor’s Club VIP.

According to information gleaned from a federal wiretap, Spitzer had at least seven or eight liaisons with women from the agency over six months, paying more than $15,000. Reports indicate that investigators believe Spitzer paid up to $80,000 for prostitutes over several years while he served as attorney general, and later during his term as governor.

The UK, too, has had its share of sleaze. Former British politician John Jeremy Thorpe was the member of parliament for North Devon from 1959 to 1979. An Etonian and Oxford graduate, Thorpe became leader of the British liberal party in 1967, at just 38 years.

Two years later, a man named Norman Scott made claims that they had been lovers, at a time when homosexuality was illegal in the UK. The scandal became headline news in 1974, when Scott claimed a hit man had been hired to kill him in order to hush up the affair.