Ceremonial resolutions are about as light and fluffy as Council business gets. They’re basically the legislative equivalent of kissing babies. So it amounts to a serious snub when a lawmaker raises objections about one.

So far this year, for instance, the Council easily passed resolutions honoring retiring journalists Pat Collins and Doreen Gentzler, the city’s “famous groundhog weatherman and political prognostician, Potomac Phil,” and recently deceased Ward 7 State Board of Education Rep. Karen Williams, all without debate of any kind. The lone exception was a resolution recognizing former Attorney General Karl Racine.

It might’ve seemed like a minor procedural move Tuesday when At-Large Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie asked that the resolution be removed from the Council’s consent agenda, which encompasses a group of noncontroversial bills packaged together and voted on all at once. But that request allowed McDuffie to trash the resolution entirely, as such bills must pass unanimously, per the Council’s rules.

Accordingly, the Council didn’t debate the measure, as it typically would when other legislation is taken off the consent agenda (in fact, anyone watching the meeting remotely, as Loose Lips was, could hear At-Large Councilmember Anita Bonds asking Chairman Phil Mendelson about this very point just before the legislative livestream cut off). Nevertheless, the silence spoke volumes—and sent tongues wagging around the Wilson Building.

LL had heard about this good bit of drama surrounding a resolution honoring Racine during the Council’s last meeting of 2022, when Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen tried and failed to get it on the agenda, with 10 of his colleagues as co-introducers. McDuffie and Ward 7 Councilmember Vince Gray were the only holdouts. But there were bigger fish to fry with so many weighty matters up for consideration at the end of the year, and this dustup dropped off the radar.

It seemed the controversy was over when Allen revived the resolution for the new Council period, this time with Gray on board. But McDuffie’s name was still absent, foreshadowing his decision to tank the resolution when it came up for a vote.

“I was disappointed that the Council failed to recognize Karl Racine’s noteworthy leadership,” tweeted Ward 5 Councilmember Zachary Parker, one of eight lawmakers to enjoy Racine’s endorsement in past campaigns. “Politics aside, we owe our former attorney general a great deal of thanks for his unflinching advocacy.”

A spokesperson for McDuffie did not respond to a request for comment, but the councilmember’s message here is clear enough. Mendelson, for one, has had his fair share of disagreements with Racine over the years, and the ex-AG has slammed Bonds repeatedly for her failings in leading the housing committee. Both backed the resolution anyway. McDuffie seems to be making it plain that he has not forgotten the friction that defined the pair’s relationship in 2022.

McDuffie and Racine were never the best of friends over their long careers in office, though they did align on some issues (like criminal justice reform). Things only really started to get ugly when McDuffie launched his bid for AG, and Racine pointedly opted not to endorse him in favor of the eventual winner, Brian Schwalb.

But Racine’s endorsement included plenty of other factors (most notably, his and Schwalb’s shared roots at Venable) and probably could have been forgiven until McDuffie was booted from the AG ballot and entered the at-large contest instead. That was when Racine went all in on Elissa Silverman, bashing McDuffie for his campaign contributions from a developer “at the center of displacement” in D.C. in the process. Those tussles left a mark even after McDuffie emerged victorious in November.

For his part, Racine says in a text message that he’s “focused on my business not local politics.” And it seems he has plenty to focus on, considering his newly announced role as a top attorney at the big firm Hogan Lovells and spots on a couple of corporate boards. After years of making a measly $210,000 or so while navigating the messy world of D.C. politics, Racine looks ready to rake in the really big bucks instead of worrying about the Wilson Building.

This kerfuffle says a bit more about McDuffie, who figures to be part of the political scene for the long term. Fresh off a comeback from near-ruin, he’s telling his rivals (past and future) that he can hold a grudge.