The Big Voice Goes Silent

Vicarious grief is not my thing.  Grief is very personal, and reserved for those you knew, loved, and lost.

And I didn’t know Andrew Breitbart.

Still, though, I have fought tears all day.  He was one of my heroes.  I don’t have many.  I’m late to this whole conservative blogosphere party, but I understand and appreciate the fact that this “party” would not exist without certain key outliers.  Rush Limbaugh, Neil Boortz, Matt Drudge, Glenn Reynolds, and Andrew Breitbart are prime examples.

Breitbart.

The “Big” voice.

I dunno if you’ve noticed, but my tagline is “just one voice from the rabble.”

This tagline is meant to emphasize the smallness of my voice.  Insignificant.  No one of any import.

Well.  As a typical average nobody, can I just say?  It’s awesome when a bigger voice speaks for you.  And that’s what Andrew Breitbart did.  When nobody-ol’-me attended the Code Red anti-Obamacare rally, and promptly got accused of terrible racism, what good would my little tiny voice have done?

Not much.  Enter Andrew Breitbart, who offered $100,000 to anyone who could provide evidence of this supposed outburst of racism.  Of course, no such evidence existed.  Because it was a lie.

Andrew Breitbart helped us to feel comfortable with calling out the lie.  Most of us have a hard time even believing that folks want to lie about our beliefs and motives.  Many of us want to help “The Left” to understand us.  We want to assume the best from people.  Maybe they misheard.  Maybe they misunderstood.

Andrew Breitbart helped us to remember that many people don’t mishear or misunderstand.  They hate us.  They do not deserve the benefit of the doubt.  They do not deserve respect.

So yeah.  Go ahead and point out the fact that Andrew Breitbart disrespected the memory of Ted Kennedy.  Cry me a river.  But don’t expect me to swim in it.  Ted Kennedy was a bad actor, and the best one can say is that he was reckless, not premeditated in the death of Mary Jo.

Does Andrew Breitbart have a Chappaquiddick in his past?  Duh, no.

He does, however, leave a grieving widow and four children behind.  I pray that they find comfort and healing in the upcoming days, months, and years of grieving.

Not that grief ever goes away.

I’m glad that I was willing to defend Andrew Breitbart in the past.  I’m glad that he inspired so many of us.  I intend to embody his spirit in the future.  The Happy Warrior lives on, if we happily fight his battles.  A lot like the Smiling Soldier.

Cleaning House

For reasons unknown, I had the irrepressible urge to sort out my YouTube subscriptions.  What a mess.  Clearing the junk out of my YouTube account was almost, but not quite, as satisfying as a thorough clear-out of the garage.

And probably just as temporary.

Found some good stuff while I sifted, though.

Like this:  Marooned in Marin has some CPAC footage of Mr. Breitbart discussing the Pigford case. 

Ah yes, Pigford.

I remember when Breitbart first released the NAACP videotape of some then-unknown black lady talking about her past discrimination against white people.

After Mrs. Sherrod got fired, lotsa folks were walking on eggshells about the whole thing.  Not me.  I am on the record as being in Breitbart’s corner from the get-go.

And I was right.  In this video, Mr. Breitbart explains how it just so happened that a Pigford settlement was buried in a bill that was supposed to pass the same week that he released the Shirley Sherrod video.  He further explains that he had no idea about the Pigford angle at the time.

He was merely trying to counter the NAACP’s spurious accusation of Tea Party racism.  (Remember?  The NAACP helped sponsor the “Tea Party Tracker” to monitor all the rampant raaaaacism inherent in the Tea Party system.  This website is still running, but looks like it hasn’t been updated since October 2010.  Snicker.)

Breitbart learned about Pigford only after the Sherrod scandal, from some of the left’s responses.  He has been unravelling this giant snarl of yarn ever since. 

The yarn was spun back in 1997, with Pigford v. Glickman.  Zombie has a great introduction, if you want more detail.  The case became a class action lawsuit, and apparently at least one attorney started misbehaving.  Followed by loads of additional freeloaders.

Fast forward to today, and we find that Andrew Breitbart has all kinds of crazy witness testimony about the widespread fraud and injustice:  nonfarmers undeservedly receiving settlement money, the real claimants getting totally shafted, and the D.C. critters shamelessly doing whatever was necessary to extract political capital from the whole affair (surprise, surprise).

To top it all off, Sherrod recently got around to that lawsuit she promised against the eeevil Andrew Breitbart:

“The cost of defending the lawsuit . . . probably covered by insurance.

The chance to take the depositions of Obama administration and NAACP officials, to investigate Sherrod’s connections to left-wing advocacy groups, and to expose the Pigford case intrigues — priceless.”

Let’s pop some popcorn.  This is gonna be good.