I admit that, at first, I didn’t believe the news. The headline on Brietbart’s site, biggovernment.com, proclaimed In Memoriam: Andrew Breitbart (1969-2012).
I figured it was another attention grab from the ultimate attention whore who would say anything, no matter how bombastic, inflammatory or just plain mean-spirited, usually in the form of a lie, to garner media attention. He was a narcissist first, right wing mudslinger second.
So, when the news broke on his own site, confirmed early on by only his friends and employees, I figured it was another one of his awful stunts – he’d soon be retweeting the worst of the (accurate) insults about him. But then came the real confirmations, first from ABC news, that the LA Coroner’s offices said Breitbart had died at the LA Medical Center, shortly after midnight, of “natural causes.”
By natural causes, they certainly meant that he wasn’t murdered. Given his nastiness and the multitude of nasty lies he spread about people, and the hate that followed him wherever he went, the assumption that his death might have been caused by one of his victims would not have been very far-fetched. But that was not the case. We’ll have to wait for the coroner’s report. From various reports I’ve heard of his behavior, I won’t be surprised if it says his death came from heart failure brought on by various drugs found in his system. We’ll see.
I understand that he left behind a wife and four children, which is truly sad. I can’t imagine that they’re in the dark about the awful things he did and the many enemies he created. I hope they’re not seeing the comments of people like me who’ve been smeared and slandered by his lies and vitriol. If they do, again, I can’t imagine any of this would come as a surprise.
I don’t believe in whitewashing anyone’s image when they die. I’ll say about Breitbart today the very same things I said about him yesterday. He was an asshole, and karma is a bitch.
On October 8, 2008, my friend Marc Germain invited me and Breitbart on his show at talkradioone.com to “debate the debate”. Obama and McCain had just finished what I think was the final debate of the election season (but I could be wrong about that), and we were to discuss it.
I had never met Andrew before, though I knew of his namesake websites (breitbart.com and breitbart.tv) and his status as a wannabe Drudge. But I was unprepared for the nastiness that attacked me over the phone.
I’ll do a special edition of my show tomorrow morning, and play the exchange in its entirety… but if you just can wait, listen here:
Nice guy, right? I had a second run-in with him, of sorts.
Last April 26, I was arrested after going to an event billed as a Town Hall Meeting with my congressman, Allen West. When I got there, I found they had changed the rules from the way all of their previous town hall meetings operated. Now, constituents didn’t have the opportunity to address our congressman directly; instead we were required to write our questions on a card to be picked over and read by staffers.
If I had known it was to be a lecture and not an actual town hall meeting, I wouldn’t have gone . I wanted to ask my congressman about his vote in favor of turning Medicare into a voucher program… When the question was asked and answered with asinine talking points, I raised my hand. From the second row center, he could see me, and chose to ignore me. So I shouted out my question… I’ve told the story many times, right here, but this is what happened when I asked my question that got me thrown out and subsequently arrested.
That weekend, Andrew Breitbart was a panelist on Real Time with Bill Maher. Bill played a video from another “Town Hall Meeting” in which a constituent was shouted down for daring to ask a Republican representative about their vote to privatize Medicare. This is how Breitbart responded:
I hope he’s nice and warm right now, even if I do feel badly for his family and friends.
After that surprise beginning of the show, we went on to more pleasant topic, like how fucked up our country is today, and the Middle East fucked-upedness that will never go away.
Rocky Anderson was a two-term mayor of Salt Lake City, and is running for the presidency on the Justice Party ticket. He’s got really refreshing ideas about fixing this nation’s problems. He told us about some of them on the show this morning… Go to his website and check him out. You’ll be impressed.
Maysoon Zayid joined in in the second hour and I asked her why the Arabs hate the Jews. (Hint: they don’t…well, they all don’t).. You should listen to our conversation. You’ll want to hear more.
Don’t forget, a special farewell to Andy show tomorrow morning. I’ll play back the entire segment from Marc Germain‘s show from October 2008. Talk to you then…