My 15 Minutes (Actually, 45) Of Fame…

I was a guest today on Rob Schilling’s Charlottesville radio talk show today. Podcast can be found here.

I’ve written about Rob several times before, such as The Intolerance Of Virginia Bluebloods on March 6, 2006:

No, I don’t mean the bluebloods you’re probably thinking of — aristocrats or descendants of aristocrats or aristocrat wannabes. I mean the Democrats in solid Blue Charlottesville, who are increasingly demonstrating a level of intolerance that I find both extreme and yet typical of the breed.

Take the City Council, for example. (Or, in Henny Youngman style, “Take the City Council, please!”) There are five members. They were traditionally all Democrats until four years ago upstart Republican Rob Schilling, an import from Pasadena, California, pounded the pavement and got himself elected. He’s been a persistent and effective critic of the remaining four Democrats ever since, and they don’t like it.

In fact, according to an article in today’s Daily Progress, at least one of the Democrats, Blake Caravati, has so much trouble with criticism that he not only wants Schilling defeated for re-election — no surprise or problem there — but he doesn’t even like the idea of him walking around a free man with the same First Amendment rights as everyone else.

You’ll have to read the rest yourself to see why criminal charges were threatened. And then the next month, in Old Dominion Dems Decry Diversity!:

The Hook, a weekly newspaper in Charlottesville, has an article in the current issue leading up to the city council election next Tuesday whose dramatic headline asks: “Countdown: Can Dems Retake Council?”

I’m tempted to say that question is sooooo Charlottesville, but I’m afraid it’s rather typical of Dems these days (in Charlottesville, like many other places, “Democrat” and “journalist” and “editor” are synonyms.) What, you must be asking by now, bothers me about that headline? It’s this: “retake” suggests the Democrats, now in a minority, may be poised to regain a majority on the city council. Isn’t that what it suggests to you?

Wrong! The current make-up of the city council is 4 Democrats and 1 Republican. When that one Republican, Rob Schilling, a very bright and appealing transplant from southern California, was elected in 2002, he was the first Republican to be elected to the city commission in 16 years, and is still the only one. The Democrats have launched a frenzied attack to unseat him this year.

Thus, as The Hook’s odd and misleading headline neatly reveals, to Charlottesville Democrats “retake” means ousting the only Republican and returning to a council that is made up only of Democrats.

And finally, a week later in Charlottesville, The Capital Of Blue Virginia…, I reported the sad but predictable news that Rob had indeed been tossed off the city council:

Well, … the Charlottesville Dems were successful on Tuesday in their effort to “retake” the City Council, ousting the only Republican to have served on it in the last 16 years and thus eradicating the one voice that provided the “diversity” that is so celebrated by those Dems when it doesn’t cost them anything.

Ironically, Republican Rob Schilling’s major accomplishment, bringing the Council’s 4 Democrats, kicking and screaming, finally to accede to his efforts to convert the school board from appointed to elective, may have done him in, since hotly contested campaigns for seats brought out many more Democratic voters in the city.

But, fortunately for his former constituents and the rest of us in central Virginia, Rob landed on his feet … or more accurately, on his behind, sitting behind the a WINA microphone with his very popular talk show. He’s been dropped twice, and re-instated twice by popular demand. Take a look at his blog, especially this essence-of-Rob dump on Charlottesville Democrats yesterday.

I had a good time on Rob’s program today, and hope he and listeners did. He issued an invitation to anyone who disagreed with my take on race preferences to appear and debate with me on another day. I hope someone takes the bait.