It's been a breezy couple of days in the Point as fighting intensified over N.I.C.E..

Yesterday, Tom Butt emailed his N.I.C.E. backers about his concern over "a small group carrying on a full court press to defeat it." Some people who had once backed it are now opposed or wavering.

Late this morning I ran into my friend Andrew Butt as he snapped photos and offered new info that might make me change my mind. I'll read "Business Improvement Districts 101" a little later.

Also this morning, Tom sent reinforcements to the N.I.C.E. people, a seven-page "Rebuttal to Opposition..." It addressed points made by Richard and another vocal opponent, Angus MacDonald, and it included eight photos of vacant storefronts.

About that time, Tom posted a rebuttal to "Meaning of N.I.C.E." He addressed it to "you and other who criticize N.I.C.E...", thus losing a chance to convince me.

Meanwhile, Richard and some fellow opponents were having a pow-wow of their own. Richard joked, sort of, that I might be a spy for Tom Butt.

His joke reminds me of a moment I heard on yesterday's Talk of the Nation when a defeated candidate for Congress said she had become "road kill" for taking a moderate position on abortion.