Schilling Show Fail

Conservative Charlottesville radio host Rob Schilling is up in arms. He has posted a blog decrying the fact that UVa College Republicans were not allowed to protest at Rep. Tom Perriello's Charlottesville office. The group showed up hoping to protest Tom's vote in favor of health care reform and were met by police, who told them to leave. Here's the video of the apoplectic College Republican chair, Joshua Lambert:



Never mind that there already was an Americans for Prosperity protest (and simultaneous counter-protest) at that same office. By all accounts, it was so obnoxious that nearby business owners made it clear they wanted the protesters gone and the protests to stop. What it comes down to is that the police were there at the request of property owners, not on the orders of Tom or anyone associated with his office. Charlottesville business owners asserted their private property rights; isn't that what conservatives are supposed to be all about?

And as Lambert noted in the video, they were not told to get off the premises, they were simply told they could not protest in the parking lot. Police let them know they were welcome to share their concerns inside the office, but apparently that wasn't the appropriate venue--in the video, Lambert actually said, "we can't really say what we want to say if we walked in the front door." Huh?

But my favorite quote is this, from Schilling's blog:

Lambert and other aggrieved citizen groups are seeking legal support to assist in re-establishing their abridged rights.

Sigh. I'm reminded of all the times I've heard someone like Rush Limbaugh accuse liberals of having a "victimization complex."

By the way, does anyone else find this whole thing ironic? This same group of people just elected an attorney general who sees the Establishment Clause as an impediment to his dominionist worldview, and now they're worried about their First Amendment free speech rights. Beautiful.