"Every man dies. Not every man really lives." — William Wallace, from Braveheart
Internet journalist and entrepreneur Andrew Breitbart died last week at age 43. He left behind a wife, four young children, a lot of friends and political allies, and a throng of mendacious enemies. He was a 21st Century Woodward and Bernstein. He exposed the lies of the Left more brazenly than anyone on the current national scene.
After working with Matt Drudge on the Drudge Report for a decade, Breitbart struck out on his own, starting web sites such as Breitbart.com, BigHollywood.com, BigJournalism.com and BigGovernment.com. His investigative reporting uncovered Anthony Weiner's online depravity, which led to the New York congressman's resignation. He told us about the racism of Agriculture Department official Shirley Sharrod and helped expose the corruption of Barack Obama's favorite community organizing group, ACORN. He was a bold and a fearless man.
Within days of Breitbart's death — hours, really — it became obvious why his pugnacious presence in our public discourse will be sorely missed. On the very day of his passing, radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh waded into one of those cultural battles that Breitbart so dearly loved to fight. As usual, Rush was waxing outrageous on his radio program, this time regarding Sandra Fluke, a female Georgetown law student recruited to testify before Nancy Pelosi's mock congressional committee hearings as to why she believed she should be provided thousands of dollars worth of contraceptives and abortion-producing pharmaceuticals at absolutely no cost to her. Pelosi's phony inquiry was held because she was unhappy with the legitimate congressional hearings concerning the Obama administration's totalitarian policy of requiring health insurance companies to provide these medications "free."
Limbaugh stated the facts, asked a simple question and then answered it: "She wants to be paid to have sex," he quipped. "What does that make her? It makes her a slut. It makes her a prostitute."
It was classic Rush Limbaugh: jolting, biting and brutally honest — illustrating absurdity by being absurd, as he likes to say. Of course, the Left went ballistic and started pressuring Limbaugh's sponsors to drop their support of his show. Initially, Rush doubled down, issuing a statement that he would personally provide all the birth control this woman needs — in the form of aspirin tablets to put between her knees. This incensed liberals all the more, and by this week, seven sponsors had pulled their support of the program. Finally, to stop the bleeding, the bombastic host issued an apology on his web site.
I found myself wondering what Andrew Breitbart would say about this whole incident. I'm guessing he would say that this promiscuous young woman apparently believes that she should be provided these drugs at no charge simply by virtue of the fact that she is an American citizen sucking oxygen. I would further assume that he would point out that the President of the United States obviously agrees with that notion, since he called her to tell her that her parents should be proud of her (for what, I'm not quite sure).
Andrew Breitbart would never have apologized, and I think he would have advised Rush Limbaugh against doing so, because he knew that to capitulate to the Left is to surrender and allow them to define the terms of the debate.
Finally, I think Breitbart would see the humor in the situation. I believe he would tell anyone who would listen that Rush Limbaugh's observation was reminiscent of the old joke about the man who asks a woman if she will have sex with him for a million dollars. When she replies in the affirmative, the man asks, "How about for ten dollars?" Her indignant reply: "What do you think I am?" To which the man responds, "We've already established that. Now we're just negotiating price."
That was Andrew Breitbart, and he will be greatly missed. He is dead at far too young of an age, but no one can deny that he really lived.
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© 2012 by Doug Patton
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Doug Patton describes himself as a recovering political speechwriter who agrees with himself much more often than not. Now working as a freelance writer, his weekly columns of sage political analysis are published the world over by legions of discerning bloggers, courageous webmasters and open-minded newspaper editors.
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