WHAT THE IMF HEAD SAID TO CANDY CROWLEY OFF-CAMERA

WASHINGTON — CNN senior correspondent Candy Crowley interviewed IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde earlier today, and Lagarde told Crowley what everybody already knows: that if John Boehner (nominal leader of the Republicans in the House of Representatives) and the Tea Party push the United States off the fiscal cliff, there will be zero growth in the United States.

Before assuming her post as the head of the IMF, Lagarde, a native of Paris, served as the French Minister of Finance for the Euro Zone. 

Last week, The Modern Language Association issued a ranking of relative facility in speaking the English language among world leaders. Russell Berman, immediate past president of the MLA, when asked by a solitary reporter to rank Lagarde's fluency and comprehensibility in English to that of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, said that he has no difficulty in understanding Lagarde, but that he recommends that Perry go back to grade school.

Although Lagarde, an accomplished lawyer, administrator, and diplomat, was polite on camera, after the cameras quit rolling, and as witnessed  by the same solitary reporter, Crowley asked Lagarde what the United States will “really” look like after the United States falls off the fiscal cliff.

Her answer was short and to the point: "Merde."