“This is the Republican establishment that can’t take a message,” Del. Bob Marshall,R-Prince William, sputtered this week. An expression of remorse from the delegate who blocked the election of a Richmond prosecutor to a judgeship because he has the mettle to support gay rights?

No, Marshall was reacting in The Washington Post to a letter by leaders of Richmond’s top law firms backing Tracy Thorne-Begland for an interim bench appointment.

Marshall decried the letter as “unbelievable arrogance,” an ironic statement given the fact that Marshall spiked Thorne-Begland’s election with a late-night vote when 36 out of 100delegates were absent.