You can say what you will about Mike Nifong, good or bad, but it's hard to
deny this: the guy is pretty prickly. He apparently curses defense
attorneys, he sends churlish e-mails to reporters, and he takes disagreement
very personally.
So it's not a big surprise to see that after a couple of members of the
Animal Control Advisory Committee signed the petition for Lewis Cheek, Nifong
is getting petulant.
He wrote the committee a letter that "[s]ince it is apparent that many
of you do not have confidence in me, I intend to reassess the position of my
office with respect to representation on the board and to inform you of my
decision about whether we will continue to participate within the next two
weeks."
He did say that an underling might fill the job, and that people were free to
sign whatever they'd like and support whomever they please.
So there is a group now called Anybody But Nifong, and they got mentioned in
his presser the other day, with Nifong saying he guessed that went with the
territory.
But what maybe he should start to notice is that it's not just a group of
disaffected voters, and it's not just members of the Animal Control Advisory
Committee. The Cheek petition got over 10,000 signatures, which is roughly
equivalent to the votes that Nifong got in the primary.
Pretty clearly, a lot of people are concerned.
Quick thought: the bitterness between Nifong and former colleague Freda
Black is well-known. But the question which hasn't been asked is
this: is that sort of bitterness a fundamental part of his nature?
It's a fair question, because he seems to lash out at people on a pretty regular
basis.