A Tornado in Heaven: Andrew Breitbart, RIP

The conservative movement’s indispensable man is gone. Far too young, so young that it is a shock to hear. Please pray for Andrew Breitbart’s family.

The last time I saw him was in Manchester back in January. We were both there to cover the primary. He was at radio row giving an interview, going a million miles an hour as always, covering more ground in a few minutes than most can cover in a decade. He finished his interview, turned and saw me, and greeted me with that big, hearty laugh. He introduced me to the folks in the room with a light joke and a group of us walked down the way to get some dinner. I ended up begging off, it had been a long day and the hotel restaurant looked like it wouldn’t have a table for an hour or so.

We always looked each other up at conferences and events. I had the privilege of introducing him at the True the Vote summit in Houston last year. Things were always happening around him. He was always engaged in some debate or fight. He was always working on a blockbuster story. He was relentless while managing to be fun. He had a knack for making the right enemies and living under their skin and rent free in their heads 24/7. He had a knack for making friends too, like Lee Stranahan and Brandon Darby. He seemed to love every second of it. “Happy warrior” gets about a tenth of the way to describing Andrew. Ecstatic warrior is closer to the truth. He didn’t go out of his way to be the center of attention, but he usually was just because of his irrepressible personality. We know about so many things because of his drive and his judgement and his courage and his strategic brilliance. ACORN. The Pigford settlement. The underside of the occupy movement. Andrew was the master of havoc.

The Drudge Report. The Huffington Post. His own Breitbart.com and Big sites. Andrew thought big and built big.

Andrew Breitbart was a fearless tornado and a friend. He was a patriot. He was honest. He was a good man. Though “RIP” is in the headline and on people of good will’s lips and hearts today, I doubt that Andrew Breitbart will actually rest in peace. Andrew always had peace of mind, but as anyone who spent more than five minutes with him knows, he never rested.