Man Of Passion

Andrew Breitbart has died.  The second day in a row with an obit I wasn't expecting any time soon.

I knew him reasonably well.  I first ran into him at one of (now editor of Reason) Matt Welch's parties in 2003.  He was introduced to me as the second-in-command at Matt Drudge's website--or as he put it, "Matt Drudge's bitch." I asked him if he was the one responsible for running that weird picture of Sumner Redstone whenever the guy was in the news, and Breitbart said that's the reason they chose it.

I know we met in 2003, because he talked about the then-new song "Hey Ya!," and how kids were mesmerized by it.  Andrew liked it too, even if it wasn't his kind of music.

He was a dynamo, and you could feel he was going places.  Soon after he had a book out, Hollywood Interrupted, an attack on celebrity culture.  It was a bit overheated, more a collection of nutty things famous people did than a coherent argument, but that was Andrew's style. I'm not saying he was wrong so much as he was very passionate, and believed if you opposed something, the right strategy was to go on the attack, and stay on attack.

He also helped set up the Huffington Post.  Perhaps this inspired him to go from behind the scenes to front and center, and create his own series of popular websites--Big Hollywood, Big Government, Breitbart TV, Big Journalism, Big Peace.  They broke a lot of stories and were involved in a number of scandals. (With the sites up and running, I assume they'll go on even without their leader.) He also wrote a new book entitled Righteous Indignation, a statement of his life and beliefs.

In the years since I met him, I must have run into him six or seven times.  He was always busy, on his way to or from something, working on several projects at once.  I'm not sure how he saw himself, but to others he was a modern media titan.

He also was fearless.  That's the word you see most often in the tributes.  He, perhaps more than any other conservative, was willing and able to wade into the liberal media and take no prisoners.



Even if you hated his politics, he had a saving grace--his sense of humor.  As committed as he was, he didn't seem to take himself too seriously.  And when I think of him, that's the part that stands out the most.