To listen to some people — federal Judge Emmet Sullivan, D.C. Council members Phil Mendelson, Mary Cheh and Yvette Alexander and a few in the media, for example — D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles is the devil incarnate.

Actually, he is the puck in a high-stakes political game. Some believe that discrediting him will weaken Mayor Adrian M. Fenty. And so, slamming Nickles — one of the mayor’s closest allies — has become blood sport.