Conservative firebrand Andrew Breitbart is dead at age 43, apparently from natural causes:
The websites he founded ran a statement Thursday morning announcing that Breitbart, 43, died “unexpectedly from natural causes” in Los Angeles shortly after midnight. His attorney and editor-in-chief of those sites confirmed his death to Fox News.
“We have lost a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a dear friend, a patriot and a happy warrior,” the statement said. ”Andrew lived boldly, so that we more timid souls would dare to live freely and fully, and fight for the fragile liberty he showed us how to love.”
Breitbart was a happy warrior who engendered pure hatred in those with whom he disagreed. It was possible to find some of his methods regrettable while respecting the unapologetic passion he brought to his politics. One of his cleverer tactics on Twitter was to re-tweet the bile he received to ensure that his haters received a wider audience.
Many of whom it appears, do not have the grace or tact to remember that, de mortuis nil nisi bonum. These haters may think that they have gotten the last laugh simply by outliving a man they could not outwit, but by their spleen we know them
Not all of his ideological opponents took the fast train to the gutter. Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo takes the high ground, remembering that behind our differences we share a common humanity, and a common destiny.
He was fun to watch…never afraid to get down in the trenches duking it out with OWS protestors. His websites were a daily read.
RIP – too many died for my comfort in the last 48 hours.
Including a family friend who was setting up his Road Grader
yesterday. Ambulance passed me on the way to work.
He was run over by a Tweeker as I understand..
You shouldn’t die in your Grader Job…
Dropping into a canyou into smoke- a risk.
Being Catipulted off a Carrier deck into pitch black
night-with everthing working-hopefully- a risk.
or landing on one..
Pulling someone over for an out tailight- and having to pull
your .45- a risk.
Not setting at your computer
Not putting out traffic cones on a remote NE Oregon road…
canyon- dammit
Breitbart was an unrepentant advocate of Hunter S. Thompson’s admonishment that one must be “willing to challenge the bastards on their own turf” This he did with relish and abandon. The conservative cause is severely damaged by his loss.”Pastafarian” over at Ann Alhouses’ place commented:
“I’m having having trouble coming up with a worse person to die, fore the sake of our nation.”…Britebart was completely unique and irreplaceable. Imagine how things would be if he had not been around for the last 3 or 4 years. This is one man who made a difference. Those are few and far between.”
Amen, and Concur, and What You Said, Sir!
We need a lot more people with the attitude and willingness of an Andrew Breitbart to face The Left but, unfortunately, we don’t – at least not in the public eye as he was. Yes, he was acerbic in his way, but that is why it was so fun to see and listen to him. He did to The Left what they do to those with whom they disagree (which they have been doing for decades). The Lefts’ actions have been getting worse and worse in recent years and conservatives needed, and now need more than ever IMHO, people such as Breitbart to visibly fight back directly.
How sad; what a shock.
Breitbart was a good soldier in the cultural war. I agree with SteveC that he took the battle to the Left and hit them with their own in-your-face tactics. The problem with the Right is that most of that persuasion do not want to be nasty or confrontational, and they are Mau-Maued (as in Mau-Mau the Flack Catchers) by the Left who push that guilt trip on the Right whenever they can.
I regret his passing at a young age and at this critical time. I also regret that there are not more like him to storm the castles of deception. David Horowitz is another such soldier, truly valuable because he knows most intimately the wickedness and snares of the Left and can throw it back into their faces.
Horowitz is a very mixed bag. He still cavorts with the likes of Dershowitz and heels to PC nonsense. Breitbart would have nothing of that.
Hi Quartermaster,
It would be impossible for him to throw over ALL his previous existence. He does good work through the Horowitze Freedom Center and I particularly appreciate his going to campuses and exposing the liberal agenda to often threatening and rowdy know-nothings who aspire to be part of the intellectual elite.
It would be OK if he were honest about it, but he isn’t. He’s shown himself to be somewhat of a waffle, and it just makes him a target.
His poor family. He leaves a wife and 4 children and those slimes all aTwitter with their hate have deliberately forgotten that regardless of what they thought of him politically, he was someone’s son, husband, father, friend.
How very, very sad. Other than that, I don’t know what to say. We lost a voice we may not be able to replace in this important election year. A very dark day indeed.
I have been disgusted and enraged at the bloviating bile and uncouth commentary coming from the ranks of those who constantly claim that conservatives lack any sort of ability for “civil discourse”.
It is apparent from reading some of the sewage that passes for commentary from the KosKids that even the most rabid of conservative defenders appears a pillar of gentleness when compared to the left.
It’s not been a good couple of days.
Four Coasties were lost in a MH-65 crash in Mobile Bay. I can’t tell you how much it hurts, losing a good crew, like that. My heart goes out to their families and breaks for the children who won’t grow up with a father. I hoisted a drink to their memory at the local Pterodactyl bar. I didn’t know any of them, since all of them arrived at the ATC since I retired, but their loss in a service this small will be keenly felt.
Semper paratus.
My wife’s cousin narrowly avoided a tornado in her town in the midwest.
Losing Breitbart is a serious blow for the conservative cause. He was an unflappable defender of what he thought was right who backed down from no one. His ability to rankle the left and expose the truth made me an admirer of his from the beginning. He was the ultimate unconventional warrior, exposing hypocrisy and injustice with means equal parts forceful and brilliant.
To second what Grizzled said, as a fellow Coastie and lifetime Ptero, I mourn the loss of our shipmates in Mobile Bay and expecially the loss of probably the foremost conservative warrior of our time. Like David Horowitz, Andrew was a reformed liberal.Those formerly of the liberal persuasion, much like reformed smokers, make the most devout members of the cause once they have seen the light.
May you rest in the peace earned by a good soldier, Andrew. You will be sorely missed.
OSD
“Help support Search and Rescue, get lost.”
Big loss for his family and for the good guys. He was an acolyte of liberty.
Leaving a wife and 4 young children. I hope they can more celebrate his life than grieve or pay any attention to the negativity.
Peace and comfort to family and friends.
He will be missed by many.
Since Andrew’s father-in-law is Orson Bean, I rest assured his life will be celebrated by his survivors with the same joie de vivre with which he lived.
Natural causes at 43, huh? What is this, 1140 AD?
Looks to me as though he lived his life rather more well than wisely.
I understand he had heart problems. That seems to be what killed him.
This from a guy who used to ride hunks of composite/steel/titanium filled with explosive fuel at 160 knots or so, on black nights, onto small and moving flight decks. Takes one to know one?
Maybe just a little? Of course, the results have been happily different.
I’m sure Lex sees the irony in what he said.
As did you?
Please save the remarks of the very hateful far left to stuff up the asses of all those on that vile and hypocritical side of the aisle who whine the loudest about the loss of “civility” in our discourses.
May he rest in peace. I will go outside right now and spill a libation for him. I hope and trust that his People, of his own Patrimony, will give him a good send-off.
“…remembering that behind our differences we share a common humanity, and a common destiny.”
Do we?
Watching the liberals at work, there are times when I wonder.
Breitbart will be missed … but he will be missed a lot less if others take up the torch and continue along the path he broke.
+1
The “Little Frummer Boy,” as taki calls Frum, had a few bad remarks about Breitbart and Ace of Spades fisks him for it. You almost (almost, mind you) hurt for Frum. Then you realize Frum’s problems are all self-inflicted. Stacy McCain prays that he never screws up bad enough to merit such a reaction from Ace.
http://minx.cc/?post=327127
I didn’t think Frum could get any worse, but he surprised me with that column. Perhaps he’ll team up with Charles Johnson & Aunty Sullivan to form a “reformed conservatives” club.
…but, I’m reasonably sure you can recall men younger than Breitbart who died flying Skyhawks or Hornets.
I think that I have many times told of the doom I expected by going to family gatherings and remaining silent. One time I almost became violent while my son was deployed and had to listen to another family member calling service members kilers.
No more. Mr.Breitbart has given me the courage to speak up.
One thing I enjoyed about Breitbart is that he wore the insults, the innuendo, the attacks as a badge of honor. The man had four kids and a loving wife and the best the opposition could resort to was to claim he was gay, as if that was supposed to be a slander, coming from left-wing bloggers, that Republicans would weigh carefully before reading his collection of news and opinions.
Luckily my family gatherings are fairly low-key, we generally being too darned cold and stoic to have much time for argument. Still, during those times when things get heated I’m quick to offer some free advice. “You’re related, but that doesn’t mean you have to agree. Or be friends. You just have to play nice until your parents die.”
That usually shuts them up. Some days I wish my kids (4 and 2 years) would heed it.
– Max
…he shall be missed but not forgotten. Best