It’s been nearly three years since Vince Gray beat Mayor Adrian Fenty in the Democratic primary for mayor. Will the passage of time inspire Gray and Fenty uber-loyalist/attorney general Peter Nickles to bury the hatchet? Not if NewsChannel 8’s NewsTalk With Bruce DePuyt has anything to say about it.

Last week, Nickles appeared on the show to declare that Vernon Hawkins‘ guilty plea was more proof that Gray’s campaign stole the election. Nickles launched into an extended metaphor comparing Gray to disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong, with the shadow campaign standing in for the human growth hormone. “Bottom line, the election was corrupted and stolen,” Nickles says.

This morning on NewsTalk, Gray returned the favor. Instead of responding to Nickles’ claim that he made off with the election, Gray took digs at Nickles’ omnipresence in the Fenty administration. “Peter Nickles was the attorney general,” Gray says. “He was the mayor. He was the city administrator. He was everything.”

Nickles was also much more persnickety than other Fenty brass, the mayor said. Gray singled out working with then-city administrator Neil Albert as a delight.

But don’t think the mayor’s looking to get into the fray. “I have no intention of engaging with him,” Gray says.

Except for, y’know, all that engaging.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery