Irv NathanIt’s difficult to make the topic of tax collection management interesting, but D.C. Attorney General Irv Nathan sure is trying.
In response to this letter — geez, more letters? — sent by Councilmembers Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) and David Catania (Ind.-At-Large) asking the A.G. to review his position on Chief Financial Officer Nat Gandhi’s tax collection procedures, Nathan has accused the pair of “political coercion.”
“Apparently, you did not like our opinion, since it did not accord with your pre-conceived notions,” Nathan writes, before going on to state that Council lawyer Dave Zvenyach’s opinion on the matter actually squares with his. Oh, and he compared the Cheh/Catania letter to the Bush torture memos:
More seriously, this is precisely the problem that many of us perceived about the torture memos produced by the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice during the Administration of President George W. Bush. Those opinions, while far more consequential than one about a recordation tax, smacked of political coercion, rather than dispassionate legal analysis. They appear designed to suit the preconceptions of the requesters of legal advice to justify actions the requesters had taken or wanted to take. I do not intend to have this office succumb to any political pressure to revise a fully considered legal opinion that is legally sound.
The real torture, of course, is having to wait for the next letter in the chain. Your move, Councilmembers!
