Song of the Day: Radiohead Serenades Andrew Breitbart

“Matt Drudge’s bitch,” as Andrew Breitbart called himself, died last night at 43. Breitbart was a Republican activist who delighted in dirty tricks and character assassination. Because the truth was never on his side, he subverted it in whatever way he could. In Breitbart’s addled mind – and in the world of the modern GOP – up is down, black is white and wrong is always right. His most famous hatchet job was to edit video of  Department of Agriculture employee Shirley Sherrod speaking at an NAACP fundraiser to make her look like the racist GOP’s idea of every black bureaucrat. The video appeared to show the crowd applauding as Sherrod bragged about denying white farmers federal assistance. Reality, though, was the exact opposite. The unedited footage showed Sherrod discussing episodes in which she overcame her own flawed instinct to under-serve white landowners. Her speech was about seeing past our preconceived notions, not acting on them. It was a courageous admission to make. Her ultimate goal was to bring the races closer together. Thanks to the gutless Obama administration, the manufactured outrage cost Shirley Sherrod her job. When the full tape came out, she was offered another gig at the USDA, but declined.

We can also thank Breitbart for providing a platform on his website for his protege James O’Keefe, who made the infamous ACORN videos that featured O’Keefe pitifully dressed up as a pimp asking ACORN employees how to avoid prostitution laws. The outrage from the right that followed led to ACORN being defunded by the government. The organization is now defunct. It was a huge win for Brietbart and his band of evil tricksters. Of course, ACORN’s big crime in conservative circles was the sin of registering voters, many poor and/or brown. And there’s nothing that threatens the GOP more than people who aren’t white who exercise their constitutional right to vote.

On the day Ted Kennedy died, like a shit-throwing monkey, Breitbart delighted in tweeting a stream of vile attacks on the not-yet cold Senator.

Here on the day after Andrew Breitbart’s death, one not need make vile remarks. Character assassination is not required. All it takes is a sober look at his body of work to get a measure of the man. While the GOP grieves for one of their master practitioners of deception, somehow the rest of the world will have to find a way to spin without him.

Dead at 43, with four children left behind. What is it they say about karma?