Dom Mintoff had a personal problem called Lorry Sant. Clearly, Joseph Muscat has one called Jason Micallef.
And no, I am not referring to either violence or corruption here, but to the fact that Dom Mintoff couldn’t control Lorry Sant, who openly defied him and did exactly as he pleased.
It was only in late 1991/early 1992, when Labour had been out of government for five years already, that we found out the source of Lorry Sant’s power over Mintoff: a brown envelope full of compromising photographs, evidence of an affair between Mintoff and his sister-in-law.
Mintoff would not have been either embarrassed or compromised by evidence of a mere affair becoming public. He liked to cultivate an image of being a draw to women, and that was part of the myth of his virility, along with that business of swimming in all weathers. It was the identity of this particular woman that was the problem for him. I don’t imagine for one moment that it was because he had a shred of decency in him and cared about the fall-out to his family (if he had, he wouldn’t have done that in the first place).
His fear of all that becoming common knowledge was more likely to be because he knew only too well that going after his brother’s wife would give him feet of clay with even his most ardent supporters. People looked at things differently then, but even today, a choice like that wouldn’t be respected.
In any case, that protagonist is dead and buried (literally) at last, and his tormentor Lorry Sant went a long while before him.
What should concern us now is the source of Jason Micallef’s power over and defiance of Muscat. Yesterday we had news of yet another act of defiance: after saying that he will move on from the chairmanship of the Labour Party’s broadcast media, he announced unilaterally that he had changed his mind and would be maintaining control of Super One TV and radio, after all, even while he chairs Valletta 2018.
Of course, what this means is that any changes Joseph Muscat might want to make there, in line with his pledge to tone down the animosity (even if he really plans to keep his word on that), will now have to go through Jason Micallef. So they are more or less aborted at the outset.
Again, I hasten to add that I do not suggest here that Jason Micallef has a set of photographs, largely because I can’t imagine, by any stretch, what could possibly be in them that is even remotely compromising. Mintoff had a varied private life. Muscat appears to have one of the dullest imaginable.
But the fact remains that Muscat appears completely unable (or unwilling, at this stage) to stamp on Micallef and kick him off the edge of a high cliff (I find it necessary to add that this is a metaphor). He has moved from an early determination to deal with him – reported in the newspapers around four years ago – to managing as best he can somebody who is able to be out of his control.
Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and Franco Debono did this to Lawrence Gonzi because they held that precious one seat in parliament. Micallef doesn’t even have a seat. So it’s got to be something else.
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I also dare to say that Joseph Muscat has a second problem: Jose Herrera.
[Daphne – No, Jose Herrera is part of the same problem. The coterie is as follows: Jose Herrera/Consuelo Herrera/Charlon Gouder (now Jose Herrera’s spokesman)/Jason Micallef/Ronnie Pellegrini. Jason Micallef is probably one of the reasons Joseph Muscat didn’t make Jose Herrera a minister.]
Who is this Gouder? Another of these total nobodies who use politics as a career springboard?
You have been hinting at this for so long that I am pretty sure you know what it is.
[Daphne – No, honestly, I don’t. I haven’t started off from the point of knowing that Jason has X over Joseph. I worked it out backwards, through observation of the fact that Micallef first appears to give in to something Muscat wants, and then comes back and defies him with a unilateral decision to do what he wanted to do in the first place, which is the very thing that his supposed boss didn’t want him to do. This has now happened so many times, and Muscat seems so powerless to reprimand or stop him, that the only explanation is that he has something on him. If Micallef were a woman, we could assume something else, because men generally allow the women they are in love with, or in thrall to, or dependent on, to behave as they please. And vice versa of course.]
My feeling is that the Nats had a bombshell which they were ready to lob in the runup toto the election, but then, for some reason, they decided to hold on to it. The Nats know. Joey knows the Nats know. When will we learn the spicy details?
[Daphne – No, definitely not. I know that for a fact.]
But during the election campaign Lawrence Gonzi made a sort of disclaimer that the Nationalist Party has nothing to do with rumours going around about Joseph Muscat. I have the impression that Lawerence Gonzi even asserted Joseph Muscat personally about it.
Did Jason and Joseph ever travel together? Usually men get into all sorts of sticky situations on trips.
Pakkett tal-Ewropa
Muscat needs to put his foot not down but up Jason’s backside. Bullies will walk all over you if they realise that you are spineless.
It’s got to be pretty compromising. And I have a pretty strong feeling on what it might be. Boys will be boys.
And it’s not the strip clubs u mbarazz hekk that I’m referring to. It’s a bit more, a bit rough, shall we say.
I think there’s more for Joseph to lose than just his credibility if that brown envelope sees the light of day. And I dare to hazard a guess – it will eventually.
Jason or Joseph will fall out big time and the beans will spill.
Jason for Prime Minister – 2013 to 2018.
Jeffery Archer’s novel, ‘Honour Among Thieves’ comes to mind here.
It is no secret that Jason Micallef knows that Little Joey is a very big prick.