The caller was obviously angry and wanted to know who writes the editorials. I told her generally it was me or managing editor Douglas Grant. I asked her which one she was interested in and she said today’s.

&uot;That would have been one of mine,&uot; I said.

&uot;I could have guessed that,&uot; was her reply.

The editorial was screed against the practice of gerrymandering, in which state legislatures redraw district lines to limit challengers, evict enemies and all but guarantee their re-election in perpetuity.

It’s a bad system, albeit one that has been used for as long as the republic has been in existence.

Lately, however, things appear to have gotten a little out of hand.

Anyway, the caller said I needed a lesson in Virginia history.

&uot;We Republicans have had to sit back and take Democratic gerrymandering for 150 years and nobody said a word about. Now, suddenly, when Republicans are in charge, everyone is against it.&uot;

Despite the fact that her reasoning was akin to justifying stealing from your neighbor because he stole from you in the past (two wrongs don’t make a right), I told her I understood how she felt, but it was just as wrong when the Democrats were dong it.

I told her I was also supportive of Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s effort to stop the Democrats from perpetuating it in California,

and that I had written about that a week or two ago.

&uot;I didn’t read that,&uot; she said. &uot;I’m not too big a Republican, but you’re way to much of a Democrat and I don’t read your stuff.&uot;

I told her my real leanings were Libertarian and that I’m just opposed to cronyism and corruption which for some reason seems to make a lot of people think you are anti-Republican and if that’s the case I guess I am.

She then went on to tell my about how Senate Democrats snubbed Mark Early when he was elected from Virginia Beach and they wouldn’t even provide him with a chair or something like that. That was not very nice of them, I suppose, and I’m sure it’s that kind of arrogance that led to their ultimate fall from power in Virginia. The same thing will happen to the GOP majority if they are not careful.