Andrew Breitbart, Ace Apple Roller, Lost To Us

Well, we lost a REALLY primo apple roller to the Grim Reaper last week. Andrew Breitbart, age 43, dropped dead of what appears to have been sheer hostility. Of course, anyone who knew his work realized this was NOT ENTIRELY UNEXPECTED.

While he may not be 100% unique, it's safe to say we don't see many specimens like this one. He was a Discordian influence of an unusual sort, creating scandals, raking some serious muck and destroying lives and careers, sometimes because he believed in what he was doing, sometimes just because he dug it:

ITEM: This is the guy who got Shirley Sherrod ousted from the USDA using a doctored videotape that made it sound as if she, a black government official, were shooting down the hopes of white farmers just because she liked to mess with them.

ITEM: He also showed us some things that probably needed to be known but which I, personally, NEVER NEEDED TO SEE, like the "sexts" of State Representative Anthony Weiner's, um, weiner.

ITEM: He was also a major player in the loss of ACORN's federal funding. He was a luminous, not say glaring, star in the firmament of the Tea Party. He openly attacked people, groups and movements he didn't agree with, like the entire US celebrity culture, Senator Ted Kennedy and the NAACP. On and on, for something like 18 hours a day, until he keeled over dead, literally, in midstride.

A few quotes:

"[Breitbart] ruined a number of people's lives for no real reason." (Alex Parcene)

"My dear wild friend...Changed the world." (John Podhoretz)

"The political/media culture we're living in now...is one he made." (David Weigel)

WE WON'T SEE HIS LIKE AGAIN SOON, EVEN IN THESE BIZARRO TIMES.

I know I'm coming in more than a week late, but may I suggest that all Twitter users observe a moment of silence?