COMMENTARY | Admittedly, this has taken me a couple of days to say. I'm sorry, but the shock took me back a bit to hear of the death of the late, great Andrew Breitbart on the Los Angeles Times' website. Whether readers considered him a conservative or just a rebel, it must be admitted he took his love of uncovering corruption seriously.
Although I didn't agree with Breitbart all the time, I had a great sense of respect for his tenacity when he latched onto a story. I admired his courage even in the face of consensus opinion being against him. When the editors of conservativebyte.com called him a bulldog for the cause, no better moniker could have been given.
Before I get accused of being a conservative, I'm not. And I do not feel the need to be slapped with any sort of group label for admiring a professional's demand for the truth. I will not be called a Republican for my sense of joy when Breitbart was vindicated by Rep. Anthony Weiner's confession in June. I merely appreciate the sensation of showing the "cool kids" how easily duped they can be, too.
I have always been of the impression that Breitbart wasn't so much about any particular political party as much as he was about exposing corruption. As famous as he was for his own websites and for his service to the Drudge Report, he should also be recognized for having helped launch the Huffington Post.
He was a reporter of the truth and it is the media which feels the need to affix labels like "conservative" or "liberal" for the sake of ever-more simple-minded readers. Perhaps he played along with the affiliation since it's just too time-consuming to explain the difference to each and every passer-by who would not understand the difference - and there are many.
The average reader might not feel any gratitude to Breitbart for his example of courage -- but I do. His concern was not whether he was popular or even liked. His concern was to bring a halt to government corruption. If the petty, the small, the abusive, the dishonest and the weak hated him, it was because they could not identify themselves in any part of the man. Goodbye Andrew Breitbart. People like you are rare indeed.
