Fighting Words

Dorothy A. Brizill (pictured in center), the city government's long-time gadfly, and Peter Nickles, the newly-appointed general counsel to the mayor, are trading jabs over the definition of "respect and candor" when it comes to questions from the public and the press.

In a one-paragraph letter to Brizill that released to some members of the media before she received it, Nickles said that it had "come to my attention" that Brizill was not showing a "sense of respect" in her dealings with the administration of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, and particularly, with his communications staff.

"We appreciate your active interest in the Fenty Administration," Nickles wrote on stationery from the Executive Office of the Mayor. "I respectfully request that you observe the same rules of respect and candor that we observe here," Nickles wrote.

Brizill, who has been a blogger, activist and critic during the three previous mayoral administrations, said she thought the letter was intended to intimidate her. In return, she fired off a two-page response.

"Are you complainng that I am asking questions that are too difficult or for which Mayor Fenty and his staff are not prepared?," Brizill wrote. "Or do you think that the press should be satisfied with the handouts that we are given, ask only softball and flattering questions, and refrain from asking for additional information?"

Brizill said that Fenty's staff had refused to give her press credentials at the inaugural ball and had threatened to have her put out of the building if "I didn't behave."

Brizill took Nickles to task.

"It seems to me that when you are making baseless assertions, you should at least try to invent details that would give those assertions some verisimilitude," she wrote. "If you intend to make any further attempts to intimidate me, please don't hesitate to write, call, or e-mail."

By David Nakamura |  January 17, 2007; 8:00 AM ET
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