Attorney General Nominee A 'Scrapper'

Bowser called him a "scrapper." Graham called him "a can-do guy."

Conspicuously absent at the well-attended news conference was Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), a fact noted by NBC4 reporter Tom Sherwood.

Mendelson is chairman of the Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary and is now the one locking horns most often with Nickles. He will oversee the council hearing on Nickles's nomination.

In an interview, Mendelson unloaded his list of his misgivings about Nickles. Among them: replacing the lead attorney on the city's gun case before the Supreme Court, and that Nickles still resides in Virginia despite knowing that he was likely to be Fenty's nominee for the permanent spot.

"Shall I go on?" Mendelson asked, after listing a half-dozen issues.

At the news conference, Fenty said it was not unusual for a committee chairman to be absent from such an event.

Of Mendelson, Nickles said, "It's never been personal."

He said the two had lunch on the square across the street from the Wilson Building about a month and half ago. What issues were discussed? "All of them," Nickles said. "It was a long lunch."

As for his residency, Nickles has 180 days to move to the District. He said he is condo-shopping and searching Craigslist. "I'll invite you over to my house for a drink," he promised Sherwood.

Beer Brawl

Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D) strengthened his reputation as a consensus builder this week by trying to broker a deal between Graham and council members Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) and Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) over a ban on "single sales" -- code words for 40-ounce containers and tall cans of beer sold by liquor stores, to the chagrin of neighborhoods around the city.

One by one, council members, including Jim Graham, Wells and Adrian Fenty when he was on the council, have managed to get moratoriums on such sales in various communities. Council members Yvette M. Alexander (D-Ward 7), Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) and Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) are the latest to join the anti-single-sales movement.

Wells, successful with an H Street moratorium, is looking for an expansion in Ward 6 that would put Advisory Neighborhood Commissions in charge of curbing sales in their areas. Evans wants the same for Ward 2. They had their proposals on the agenda Tuesday as emergencies but pulled them. See, Graham has a problem with the proposals, and it's called ANC 1D, a commission that has taken an unusual stance: It is against a ban on single sales in Mount Pleasant.