Category: Andrew Breitbart

A jolly inspirational fellow.

Breitbart: ‘Fire the First Shot. Bring It On. Because I Know Who’s on Our Side.’

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Da Tech Guy covered Andrew Breitbart’s appearance in Lexington, Massachusetts:

While we can’t hear the lady’s question — evidently it had something to do with violence perpetrated by SEIU goons — Breitbart’s answer has gotten a lot of attention from his enemies:

“I’m under attack all the time. You see it on Twitter . . . They call me gay. I mean, it’s just — they’re vicious, the death threats and everything. So there are times when I’m not thinking as clearly as I should, and in those unclear moments, I always think to myself: ‘Fire the first shot. Bring it on.’ Because I know who’s on our side. And they know that they can only win a rhetorical or propaganda war. They cannot win. We outnumber them in this country and we have the guns.”

This is, after all, a statement of fact. Breitbart is merely explaining what crosses his mind in those “unclear moments” when he’s receiving death threats and being made the object of the Left’s (rather ironic) homophobia. So if the Left wants to “fire the first shot,” Breitbart is saying, there can be no doubt as to who would triumph in the resulting conflict.

Some people can’t deal with this blunt statement of reality. And there is a place for people who can’t deal with reality: Little Green Footballs.

Yeah. Doesn’t everybody?

Da Tech Guy has more thoughts on the LGF punchline.

The Semi-Smear

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“If you agree with him, you think what he does is citizen journalism. If you don’t, his work is little more than crowd-sourced political sabotage that freely distorts the facts.”
— Jeremy W. Peters, “The Right’s Blogger Provocateur,” New York Times

No need to guess which view of Andrew Breitbart the New York Times endorses. Peters managed to work “jowly” and “husky” into his description of Breitbart, but the key to the presentation is how he depicts Breitbart as (a) a media whore, and (b) a controversial ideologue. “Part performance artist, part polemicist, Mr. Breitbart, 42, has used his network of Web sites and their legions of followers to bring conservative media red meat.”

Perhaps someone can do a Lexis-Nexis search and tell me if the New York Times ever described David Brock’s Media Matters, Ariana Huffington’s Huffington Post or Markos Moulitsas’s Daily Kos in similar terms.

It’s fascinating to see how these reporters feel the need to provide little cues to tell their readers what to think.

VIDEO: Breitbart Talks WeinerGate

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MINNEAPOLIS
Everybody I saw downstairs this morning at the Right Online conference kept telling me, “You look rough.” As well I should.

My flight out of Dulles yesterday was delayed more than an hour on departure. By the time I arrived, checked into the Hilton and had dinner — bangers and mash at a British-style pub downtown — I was running desperately late on deadline for my column at The American Spectator:

Three weeks ago, Anthony Weiner was a rising star in the Democratic Party, an influential spokesman for the progressive movement and, quite possibly, the next mayor of New York City.
Today, Weiner is a despised figure so thoroughly disgraced, even in the eyes of the most partisan Democrats, that he is unlikely to have any future in politics. In the process of stringing out his bizarre scandal for nearly three weeks — the first 10 days of which were spent telling one implausible lie after another — Weiner damaged himself and his party in a way that would not have happened had he resigned much sooner. By the time Weiner gave his resignation speech Thursday in New York, he was such a pariah that even his political mentor, Sen. Charles Schumer, would not even speak publicly in his defense, instead issuing a brief statement wishing Weiner well. . . .

Please read the whole thing. After I hit deadline, I managed to grab Andrew Breitbart in the hotel lobby for this 4-minute interview about his role in breaking the WeinerGate scandal:

You’ll notice Breitbart had a bottle of red wine handy, and kept waving the cork when he was gesturing. This interview took place at about 2 a.m., after the lobby bar had closed.

CNN’s Toobin on May 31: ‘What Andrew Breitbart Was Insinuating About [Weiner] With Young Girls Is Outrageous’

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There’s no possible way Breitbart could be right, right, right, while CNN’s “senior legal analyst” was wrong, wrong, wrong — or is there?

“This is a silly little thing that happened”? “Not a big deal”? Yeah, idiot: Tell that to the cops who just interviewed the teenage girl in Delaware!

Maybe some of the numbskulls at CNN should go read what “senior legal analyst” Ace of Spades has to say tonight — Ace doesn’t have a network contract, but he’s been right, right, right all along.

UPDATE: Jennifer Preston of the New York Times actually has a pretty solid story about the latest development:

Representative Anthony D. Weiner said on Friday that he had exchanged at least five private messages on Twitter this spring with a 17-year-old Delaware girl who became an admirer of his after hearing him speak during a high school trip to Washington.
Mr. Weiner’s spokeswoman, Risa Heller, did not provide copies of the messages, but said they were not inappropriate.
“According to Congressman Weiner, his communications with this person were neither explicit nor indecent,” Ms. Heller said.
A member of the girl’s family who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect her identity characterized the messages as “harmless” but expressed concern that Mr. Weiner had communicated privately with the teenager, a high school junior.
The family was aware that there had been exchanges between Mr. Weiner and the girl but assumed that all of their conversations had taken place on a public Twitter feed. Then a scandal erupted last month over a photo Mr. Weiner sent of himself in his underwear to a college student.
Last week, Mr. Weiner acknowledged that he had sent other explicit photos and messages to at least six women he met over social media.
The family member said: “I am angry. This is surreal and unbelievable. It is absolutely crazy. We are just regular people who go to baseball games and basketball games, as ordinary and plain as can be.”
In the past few days, the girl and her family have become subjects of intense interest in the news media. On Friday afternoon, the local police arrived at their home and asked the girl and her mother to bring the girl’s phone and computer to the police station so they could be checked to make sure no crime had occurred.
The family member said the family complied, and did not expect any further action to be taken.

The important thing here is: Weiner admits he sent this teenage girl “at least five” DMs.

Does the phrase “grooming” ring a bell?

OK, that last sentence was probably not what you’d call responsible, professional, ethical journalism. But I have sources I could contact, experts in such matters, and I’m reasonably sure that if they were to take a long, hard look at the available evidence here, their responses would include something like the phrase “warning flags.” Here is Weiner, recklessly cybersexing with complete strangers, sending photos of his junk to people he’s never met — clearly driven by some sort of wild sexual compulsion — and this man is sending DMs to teenagers?

Like I said: “Warning flags.”

Weiner’s Secret Desire
UPDATED: ‘X-Rated’ Photo Emerges; Weiner’s Wife Is Pregnant; More Democrats Now Calling for Resignation

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“To be sure, Weiner stayed true to his 1996 pronouncement when, 14 years later, he wed a member of the cognitive elite, a high-powered career woman. But the details of his online shenanigans suggest that he harbored secret desires for female admiration and deference — that he was a closet male chauvinist.”
— James Taranto, “Can’t Feminists Be Hypocrites?” Wall Street Journal

UPDATE: Well, well: I had wanted to ignore this, and I’m sure no sane person actually wanted to see it, but Ace of Spades linked to Dave Weigel and . . . OK, so now Anthony Weiner’s “Full Monty” shot is at the top of Memeorandum. And just coincidentally, top Democrats have begun demanding Weiner’s resignation.

Today, I was talking to a Republican operative who said, “Who cares whether he resigns now or not? He’s been neutered. Can Weiner accuse Republicans of wrongdoing now? . . . I say, let him stay.”

Solid reasoning there, but Weiner’s political uselessness as a liberal attack dog, now that he’s been “neutered,” is precisely why Democrats will be utterly ruthless in throwing him under the bus. As Da Tech Guy pointed out, the consistently clueless Joan Walsh is still blaming the wrong people:

“If we let the other side take scalps, the right wing is choosing our leaders for us.”

No, ma’am. You liberals chose Weiner as your own leader. And as an embodiment of Democratic Party beliefs and values, he’s perfect.

UPDATE II: Weiner’s wife is pregnant. To quote Ace: “Oy.”

UPDATE III: Donald Douglas at American Power:

There’s likely to be a flood of calls for Weiner’s resignation now. And now more than ever, if only for his wife’s privacy, and for the well-being of his unborn child, Weiner should quit Congress, get away from the hostile media glare, and start rebuilding his life.

Absolutely. He should have resigned days ago, but there is absolutely no reason his wife — now the mother of his unborn child — should be dragged through this mess any longer. And the only way to end it is for Weiner to do the right thing and resign.

UPDATE IV: Andrew Breitbart issues a statement:

Earlier today, a photograph resembling one that I had withheld from publication in the Weinergate saga was released without my knowledge or permission.
Prior to the publication of our story on BigGovernment.com and BigJournalism.com this past Monday morning, it was necessary to show the pictures I had received from our source to several news producers, including several at major news networks, to prove that the additional material I described really did exist, which some have continued to doubt.
This morning, I showed a photograph, which our source claims Weiner sent her, to radio hosts “Opie and Anthony” of the Sirius XM radio network on my mobile device. Somehow, without my knowledge or permission, apparently a picture was taken of my mobile device, and subsequently published by Opie (Gregg Hughes) on Twitter.
His co-host, Anthony (Anthony Cumia), stated today:
“In regards to the photo of Anthony Weiner that was leaked by members of The Opie And Anthony show on 6/8, I want to make it clear that Andrew Breitbart had no knowledge that this photo was being made public. A phone with the photo was being displayed and a camera in the studio caught it. It was then uploaded to twitter [sic], again, without Andrew Breitbarts [sic] knowledge.”
I regret that this occurred.

UPDATE VII: Got a fork? Stick it in Weiner now:

“Anthony Weiner lied to the country about his sexual misconduct online. He also lied to me. I had been defending him, based on what he told me, but no more. Weiner must resign from Congress immediately.”
— Kirsten Powers

UPDATE VIII: Et tu, Joan Walsh?

Just now, I was watching Hardball on MSNBC and former DNC Chairman Ed Rendell was also throwing Weiner under the bus “for the good of the party.” Democrats are ruthless that way. They are far more shameless in their cynical partisanship than Republicans.

UPDATE IX: Thanks to @AngelaTC for this tip: Yet another Weiner “sexting” partner has reluctantly come forward: 34-year-old Georgia teacher Traci Nobles.


Wrong, Wrong, Wrong: Belated Notice of Charles Johnson’s Total Beclownment

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During the 10 days of WeinerGate, I tried to focus as hard as I could on following the main thread of the story, which was more than enough for anyone to attempt as the scandal rapidly developed. However, along the way I couldn’t help but notice a few distractions off on the periphery. And I vowed that, once the truth was known, I’d take a little time to double back and tie up a few loose ends, e.g.:

“As soon as I heard about the ‘scandal’ involving Rep. Anthony Weiner, and saw it being pushed like crazy by fraudster Andrew Breitbart, I knew it would turn out to be yet another phony story. And that’s exactly what happened.”
— Charles Johnson, Little Green Footballs, May 30, 2011

Spoke a bit too soon, didn’t you, Charles? Your link was to a DKos conspiracy theory citing “sources” that were, alas, 100% wrong.

Now Breitbart’s scoop, which you called a “phony story,” is front-page news in the New York Times:

Weiner Faces Calls to Resign
and Tries to Make Amends

And you know who’s laughing hardest now, Charles?

Not me. Not Breitbart. It’s all those ex-Lizards you banned from LGF.

Joan Walsh: ‘I Look Kind of Stupid’

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“The lying is what disturbs me. He implicated a lot of us. I gave him the benefit of the doubt, let’s just say that. And, you know, I look kind of stupid. But on the other hand . . .”

No, ma’am. There is no “other hand.”

You falsely accused Andrew Breitbart of “savaging a 21-year-old girl” and — on the morning of June 1 — doubled down by emphasizing the need to remind reporters “the story came from Breitbart and his right-wing smear machine.”

If Anthony Weiner did what Breitbart said he did, how is it a “smear” for Breitbart to describe what Weiner did? You still haven’t answered that question, Ms. Walsh and so, yeah, you’re right: You look kind of stupid.

And there is no “other hand.”


Breitbart’s Vindication

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Let’s be clear about one thing: Andrew Breitbart was right, right, right and his critics were wrong, wrong, wrong.

As BigGovernment.com explains, “Andrew Breitbart was in New York for previously scheduled meetings,” and went to Anthony Weiner’s press conference as an observer. So how did he end up on stage? I touch on that in my American Spectator column today:

It started with a Tweet that was reported on a blog and, by the time it led to a Monday press conference in Manhattan, the story known as “WeinerGate” was the first full-blown cybersex scandal of the New Media era. And it was perhaps altogether fitting that disgraced Rep. Anthony Weiner had to wait to make his guilty admission while Andrew Breitbart gave an impromptu lecture to the reporters assembled in a ballroom at the Sheraton Hotel.
“Everything we’ve reported about this story has been true,” said Breitbart, whose BigGovernment.com was first to tell how, late on the night of May 27, the Democratic congressman from New York’s 9th District had used Twitter to send a 21-year-old college coed a message that included a photo of Weiner’s underwear-clad crotch in a condition of obvious arousal. After ten days of denials from Weiner, ABC News was prepared to air new revelations and the congressman was at last ready to confess. Breitbart showed up at the Sheraton and was asked by reporters to speak, ascending the podium to declare: “Quite frankly, I’d like an apology from [Weiner] for being complicit in a blame-the-messenger strategy.” . . .

Read the rest at The American Spectator.