Well, someone else said it first. D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams is a lame duck, or so said Howard University President Patrick Swygert in an email sent on Wednesday to students and staff.

WTOP is reporting that Swygert, none-too-happy that Williams stepped back from supporting a controversial plan to partner with Howard and build a new $400 million hospital in Southeast, fired off an email in which he took Williams to task, writing:

Anthony Williams, who is a lame duck mayor, announced today that he is suspending the effort to create the NCMC while a task force he has chosen “studies” other approaches and healthcare issues in the District for the next several months. This too shall pass.

Williams initially threw his weight behind the new hospital, to be known as the National Capital Medical Center, but reversed course this week and decided instead to appoint a panel to study whether other alternatives would better suit the District’s health needs. Some critics of the hospital plan claimed that it would not address the need for primary health care centers and would take business away from the only existing hospital east of the Anacostia River, Greater Southeast Community Hospital.

We can’t imagine what Swygert was looking to gain with insulting Williams. Howard is still looking to partner with the District to build the new hospital, and petty provocations probably won’t garner it much sympathy from the mayor. And even if Swygert needed to vent a little, couldn’t he pick an accurate insult? After all, Williams won’t be a lame duck mayor until after the Democratic primary on September 12.