Here’s an update from Friday’s post about At-Large Councilmember David Catania making some pointed remarks on The Kojo Nnamdi Show about the relationship between the Gray administration and D.C. Medicaid contractor/political donor/target of federal raid Jeff Thompson: Gray’s chief of staff Chris Murphy says Catania ought to keep his trap shut.

“Council Member Catania should be ashamed of himself for making such an irresponsible and unsubstantiated claim,” Murphy tells LL via an email from Gray spokesman Pedro Ribeiro.

Catania’s response: “Who cares?”

Catania clarified that he’s unconcerned with what Murphy thinks (as opposed to what Mayor Vince Gray thinks) and that Gray’s chief of staff and spokesman are  “newbies” who are way out of their league.

“I don’t think Chris or Pedro have served the mayor well,” says Catania, who has recently locked horns with the mayor’s staff over how to fund health insurance for illegal immigrants. Who cares? Normally LL wouldn’t note such a back-and-forth, but this one sticks out for two reasons: One, Murphy’s eagerness to poke Catania is a sign of a new, more aggressive tone coming from the Gray administration. And two, this is the second councilmember in a short period to single out members of Gray’s staff for a public dressing down.

After an anonymous Gray staffer told the Examiner that D.C. Council Chairman Kwame “Fully Loaded” Brown was a “do-nothing chairman,” Brown responded shortly afterwards by saying that Ribeiro was “clueless.”

“I don’t respond to the mayor’s spokesperson, because I think he’s clueless on some things that came out of his mouth,” Brown told the Post.

That’s two—one more and we’ll have the rule of three.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery