Now for the battle of the Republican v. the Lapsed Republican.

The briefing: Last week, Mike DeBonis, your friendly Loose Lips columnist, wrote a piece about how Republican At-Large Councilmember Carol Schwartz had opted out of a trip to New Hampshire to further the cause of D.C. voting rights. Mayor Adrian Fenty and several councilmembers went up there to lobby for a resolution scolding the state’s two Republican senators for voting against a D.C. voting rights bill last year.

Schwartz’s reason for opting out was that the move was too partisan, too shrill.

Fellow At-Large Councilmember David Catania, who used to be a Republican, organized the trip and snapped at Schwartz in the column: “Has Mrs. Schwartz gone to visit [Kentucky Sen. Mitch] McConnell? How many times has she gone to visit the Republican leadership? I know it’s uncomfortable for her…but she has to choose. Does she want to be a citizen of this city or a partisan?”

So how does all this make Schwartz feel?

Click here for her letter to the editor.