Just like "Tricky-Dick" Nixon, "Crooked-Mike" Misick forced to resign -The iPINIONS Journal

In the fall of 1973, President Richard Nixon of the United States had every right to feel invincible… Today, Premier Michael Misick of the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) also has every right to feel invincible…

As farfetched as the comparison above might seem, the historical parallels between Nixon and Misick do not end there. And anyone with only a passing knowledge of U.S. history will appreciate not only the dire implications this raises, but also the grave consequences it portends for Premier Misick, for his enablers and, most important, for the TCI…

Accordingly, I entreat the honourable members of the PNP to follow the instructive precedent set by the members of Nixon’s inner circle – who threw him overboard to save their ship of state.

[Alas throwing Premier overboard is necessary to save the TCI, TIJ, October 5, 2007]

A week ago today, TCI Premier Dr Michael Misick fulfilled this prediction I made over 16 months ago by resigning in utter disgrace – just as US President Richard Nixon did in 1974. I regret however that it took the fumigating intervention of a UK Commission of Inquiry to get rid of him.

Indeed, it shall redound to the eternal shame of those who served in Misick’s Cabinet that they did not have the integrity and courage to demand his resignation. After all, this would have spared us the humbling and humiliating national crisis we’re now facing.

Frankly, nothing demonstrates the craven, opportunistic and ultimately delusional character of Misick’s ministers quite like the way they are all fighting now to replace him. Because they seem blissfully ignorant of the fact that most TCIslanders just liken them to rats scurrying about on a sinking ship trying to be the one atop the mast pole as it goes under.

At any rate, I feel obliged to inform Premier Misick that this, alas, is where the parallels with Nixon end. Specifically, where a pardon from President Ford gave Nixon the freedom to travel the world in search of redemption, a similar pardon from Governor Wetherell will not be forthcoming.

Not to mention the lingering fear Misick must have about being caught in a dragnet by US authorities or worse, God forbid, in the clutches of his shafted Slovak creditors.

Thus, my fellow TCIslanders, even though the Premier’s resignation means that our long national nightmare is (almost) over, it portends a future for him that is fraught with peril.

So let us pray for him … and wish him well.

*This commentary was published today at Caribbean Net News and The TCI Journal as well.