Is DSK a Sex Addict?

Is Dominique Strauss-Kahn a sex addict? A slew of new revelations of prostitutes and international sex parties—indicating continuing compulsive risk-taking in search of gratification—sure make it look that way. Now that he’s back in France after being accused of rape in the US, the former head of the International Monetary Fund and one-time shoe-in for the French presidency is embroiled in the "Carlton Affair." It's named after the hotel where sexual liaisons between the 62-year-old and a bevy of French prostitutes took place. That's no crime in France. In fact, the legal issues Strauss-Kahn faces are minor: misuse of funds, largely. But the damage to his reputation, if he has one left, is the real story. DSK was said to harbor a desire to work his way back into public life. He can scrap those plans now. Unsavory allegations about his bedroom behavior continue to surface. There are the sex parties that apparently took place in Paris, Madrid, Ghent, Vienna and Washington. There are the things he was supposed to concentrating on while at those sex parties: a “very serious conference” at Austria’s central bank among them. And there are the claims of sexual deviance from women involved—one says a 2010 encounter with Strauss-Kahn led to “brutal relations with sodomy” at a trendy Paris Hotel. Taken together, this shows “Mr. Strauss-Kahn's violence against women and his modus operandi toward a lack of consent," says Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer for Nafissatou Diallo, the New York City maid who accused Strauss-Kahn of rape. It also shows that France dodged one hell of a bullet by not electing Strauss-Kahn president.