Andrew Breitbart. Photo credit: Gage Skidmore, http://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/5450294542
America’s conservative media mourned the loss of one its own on Thursday: Blogger and web publisher Andrew Breitbart died unexpectedly of natural causes on Thursday, according to his website.
“We have lost a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a dear friend, a patriot and a happy warrior. Andrew lived boldly, so that we more timid souls would dare to live freely and fully, and fight for the fragile liberty he showed us how to love,” read the statement on his website.
Breitbart got his start working on The Drudge Report, the conservative-leaning news aggregation site, and later helped the then-Republican Arianna Huffington, publisher of The Huffington Post, launch her site. As his political ideology evolved, Breitbart became a frequent commentator on sites like National Review Online, a talking head on Fox News, and maintained a column at The Washington Times. He soon made a name for himself as a cage-rattler, self-described “Reagan conservative” who was no stranger to making controversial statements – such as describing Sen. Ted Kennedy as a “special pile of human excrement” shortly after the longtime Democratic senator’s death. Breitbart was also frequently linked to the Tea Party movement in America, appearing as a speaker at Tea Party rallies in the run-up to the 2010 midterm elections.
But Breitbart was perhaps best known for breaking the news that Democratic former Representative Anthony Weiner was sending compromising pictures of himself to women over Twitter.
Conservative America is mourned his death Thursday – but many others pointedly did not.
Mourning Breitbart. GOP presidential candidate and uber-social conservative Rick Santorum was informed of Breitbart’s passing while on the campaign trail in Georgia, responding, “It’s almost you mean you think of anyone who’s more energy who’s out there constantly driving and pushing he would be. What a huge loss in my opinion for our country and certainly for the conservative movement and the prayers go out to my family. I’m sorry to hear it.” Fellow candidate Mitt Romney also tweeted his condolences, and commentators like Megyn Kelly offered their sympathy.
His death exposes the American Left as jerks. Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin was stunned at the death of the “conservative warrior” who “was kinetic, brash, relentless, full of fight, the bane of the Left, and a mentor to the next generation of right-wing activists and citizen journalists”. Said Malkin, “If he were here, he’d be retweeting all the insane tweets from the Left rejoicing over his death. Even in death, he succeeds in exposing the hate-filled intolerance of the tolerance poseurs.”
Wait, remember who Breitbart was. Malkin accurately flagged up the fact that though conservatives may be mourning his loss, others aren’t, especially on Twitter, where there was more than a little glee at his death. But still others pointed out that Breitbart himself was never one to shy from speaking ill of the dead: @TheRudePundit tweeted a link to a posting at Think Progress from 2009, detailing Breitbart’s “sustained assault” via Twitter on the memory of Senator Ted Kennedy the day the Democrat died. Among his more choice tweets included calling Kennedy a “villain,” “a big ass motherf@#$er,” a “duplicitous bastard” and a “prick.”
Even so, America suffers from his loss. Josh Marshall, writing for American political site Talking Points Memo and republished on The Guardian, said that though he disagreed with Breitbart on most, if not all political, issues, America is poorer for his passing. “There are some people who live for the fight. It’s something I try not to be part of. Yet it’s a big, punchy, vivid and outrageously honorable tradition in the American public square. I cannot think of many people who lived more out loud than he did, more in primary colors. … He left his mark,” said Marshall. “Beneath all the layers of our public life, we’re sons, daughters; parents to sons and daughters: naked people at our most vulnerable, true moments.”
