A Hero Of Mine Passed Away: Andrew Breitbart

Yesterday was a very sad day for me. I found out this morning while starting a full day of driving that Andrew Breitbart passed away. 

Andrew was a tireless warrior against the tyranny of the culture that elevates liberals and ridicules conservatives. 

To call him a "media watchdog" would be like calling Lionel Messi merely a soccer player. Andrew Breitbart was a visionary who will unfortunately not live to see his dream fulfilled: the destruction of the Democratic-Media Complex, as he called it. Andrew Breitbart was an internetmogul with boundless energy. His "Big" sites (Big Government, Big Hollywood, Big Journalism, Big Government) as well as his home site (Breitbart.com), were portals for conservatives looking for the exposure of illegal and unethical schemes perpetrated by liberals.

Driving all day, I struggled to find coverage of the event on talk radio. Laura Ingram "broke" the story for me. Later Rush paid tribute. But, it wasn't until Dennis Miller's show that I was finally able to get the therapy I sought. Miller's entire show was devoted to Andrew. It was a somber three hours, but felt good to hear all the callers telling of their memories of meeting the man.

I only met Andrew one time, and it was brief, at a conservative event in January of 2010. We chatted about 80's new wave music (I knew he was a fan from his Twitter posts, and I am still a big fan as well).  We shared our mutual admiration for Paul Weller (The Jam, Style Council).  fter saying good-bye, as I walked away he called to me: "But, he was a Marxists, you know!".

Andrew Breitbart was hated by the liberal media, and by activists such as the Occupy movement. He was continually the object of their bile, which he retweeted with gusto (I had to stop following him on Twitter because my feed was often full of him retweeting the must vulgar insults and threats that he would receive from the so-called tolerant left.). But, Andrew had stones of steel. He was fearless and would confront the agitators face-to-face. He would see the lion's den and walk right into it, getting right into the faces of those who were calling him the worst names imaginable and wishing unspeakable things upon him and his family.

Andrew himself blew the whistle on, or gave a platform for others to expose: Shirley Sherrod, ACORN and Anthony Weiner to name only a few. Andrew Breitbart was a crusader for truth. 

Andrew was a conservative leader and defender of the Tea Party. He would fly across the country constantly, giving speeches for conservative and Tea Party groups. Near the end of the Obamacare debate, prior to it getting passed by congress, when prominent African-American congressmen claimed to have been called the n-word and spit on by Tea Party folks, Breitbart put up $100 thousand for any video evidence that such incidents transpired.  No proof was ever offered. To go one better, Breitbart then located four videos of the entire event. None of them show any instance of the n-word being uttered and no one being spit upon. 

Andrew was an eternal optimist. Everywhere he went, he talked about how we were winning and the old media was dying. I'm saddened to think that there will not be anyone like him to come along again in my lifetime. He was one of a kind.  The conservative movement has lost a potent weapon. When he recently guest hosted the Dennis Miller show, he slyly alluded to having a lot of dirt on Obama, that he would slowly release during this year's campaign. I hope he left a succession plan to follow through with that and other plans for the future.

At Andrew's barnburner of a speech at the CPAC this year, he called for unity among Republicans. He recognized that the object of all conservatives: Tea Party, Religious Right, Moderates; must be to unseat Obama. I pray his words resonate.

Lastly, Andrew leaves behind a wife and four children. I pray for his family.