Reporting on the passing of Andrew Breitbart at LGBT/POV, Karen Ocamb dubbed the new media mogul a “Conservative Gay Ally.”  Indeed, Breitbart very much represented the new face of conservatism, reaching out to gay conservatives and welcoming us into the coalition.  When I approached him last June, identifying myself as a blogger at GayPatriot and asking him to sign my book, he did so with relish.

Not only did he serve on GOProud’s board (leaving only, as Ocamb put it, “over the purported outing of an official in Rick Perry’s presidential campaign”), he criticized CPAC when the organizers of that conservative confab barred the gay conservative group. Calling Breitbart an “unexpected gay ally,” Chris Geidner of Metro Weekly reminded us what Breitbart said when CPAC announced its decision to exclude GOProud:

When the presence of GOProud at CPAC in 2011 was questioned by some on the right, it was Breitbart who told Metro Weekly, “If being conservative means rejecting gay conservatives because they are gay, then fine, I’m not a conservative.”

And yet some lefties contend he is part of the “racist, sexist, anti-gay” right.

Christopher R. Barron and Jimmy LaSalvia, Co-Founders of GOProud, mourned his passing, calling him “an amazing friend and ally to this organization.”

Nice to see that some in the gay media recognize the changing face of American conservatism.  Andrew Breitbart was part of that change.  And we gay conservatives feel his loss most acutely.

This past weekend, as a favor to my sister and brother-in-law, I drove up to the Bay Area so they could have an adult in the house with their three-year-old son while they shared a romantic evening at a nearby hotel.  Of course, this favor was a duty most pleasant as I had the chance to hike with my sister and spend countless hours playing trucks, running races, imitating pirates and dancing the dragatusi (sometimes known as the dragon-tusi) with my nephew.

When his parents were away, that precocious young man had a nightmare, waking in tears.  I rushed to comfort him, but he wanted his Daddy, asking me repeatedly where his father was.  I assured him that Daddy was coming back the following day.

None of Andrew Breitbart’s relatives will be able to provide a similar assurance to his children.  Today, we in the conservative movement mourn a man John Hinderaker called “irreplaceable“.  But, our loss pales in comparison to his children’s.  And his wife’s.  One hopes, one prays, that she has the strength to comfort them in this trying time.  And that she has relatives who can support her in the difficult task of raising children who have lost their father.

“He was kinetic,” wrote Michelle Malkin, “brash, relentless, full of fight, the bane of the Left, and a mentor to the next generation of right-wing activists and citizen journalists.”  And a father to four children.

Other bloggers have talked about his contributions to the conservative movement, how in the words of one, he “lived large“, following “his own path” and doing what he thought to be right — “no matter whom it offended or how it affected his own personal bottom line.”  Another called him “a friend and mentor“, with his family losing “a caring husband, a wonderful father and their center of gravity.”

Indeed, as yet another put it, he was not just “a brave warrior” and a “great guy”, but also a “committed family man.”  And his family will feel his loss even more deeply than we do.

May he rest in peace and may the Holy One provide comfort to his family.

That’s certain the impression I got when I read this article that a liberal, yes, a liberal friend linked on Facebook:

Democrats on K Street are warning their corporate clients: Give to Republican challengers in the 2012 election, and you’ll regret it come tax reform time.

Lobbyists are getting that message from allies of powerful Democrats such as Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who is closely watching support for Rep. Denny Rehberg, a Republican challenging Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.). Baucus supporters fear that if Rehberg ousts Tester, Baucus could be next to face a serious Republican challenge in the state.

One K-Streeter close to the Baucus operation said the senator considers a gift to Rehberg a contribution against him. Another Democratic lobbyist told a client to take his name off a Rehberg fundraising event because it would be hurtful to his company, according to sources.

The case K-Streeters are making to their clients: It will be a hard sell next year to get Baucus’s support on business-friendly tax perks set to expire or the Bush-era tax cuts that must get through his committee.

“K Street“, Wikipedia reports “is the common and often negative metonym for Washington’s lobbying industry.^[6][7]” Guess things haven’t changed in Obama’s Washington. Recall that Democrat promised not to take lobbyist cash, repeating that claim as recently as last December, “We don’t take a dime from D.C. lobbyists or special-interest PACs — never have and never will.”

Maybe he doesn’t take a dime from lobbyists, but not only do his fellow partisans take their money, but they threaten retribution to lobbyists who donate to Republicans.  Something tells me that the president won’t take the Democratic Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee to the woodshed.

RELATED:  Obama campaign admits it takes lobbyist cash

Shocking news this morning from the Big Journalism site…

Andrew [Breitbart] passed away unexpectedly from natural causes shortly after midnight this morning in Los Angeles.

We have lost a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a dear friend, a patriot and a happy warrior.

Andrew lived boldly, so that we more timid souls would dare to live freely and fully, and fight for the fragile liberty he showed us how to love.

Andrew Breitbart was a force of nature.  He took names, announced them, left the tattered lies of the Left he exposed behind… and moved on to the next castle of liberalism to storm.

I had the pleasure to meet and know Andrew.  As many of you know, he was on the GOPROUD Advisory Council for most of the last two years.  It goes without saying that without Andrew, GOPROUD would not have been as successful as it has become.  Andrew was a fighter and he was at his best when he was fighting for the little guy — he saw gay conservatives as the little guy and we are better because of it.

Many in the conservative blogosphere knew Andrew better than I.  But I am saddened greatly this morning because I know what an important figure has been lost in our movement.  He was someone that always fought against the tidal waves of doubt and conventional wisdom.

A life taken way too soon.

Andrew, I’ll miss your force in the world greatly.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

When you read the top headline on AOL, you get the sense that this miscreant donated the bulk of the money he bilked from health care agencies to the Tea Party.

In fact, as the lead paragraph of the linked article indicates, he didn’t even donate 1/1,000 of 1% of the alleged swindle to the Tea Party:

If Texas physician Jacques Roy turns out to be guilty of charges he conspired to defraud Medicare and Medicaid of almost $375 million, we’ll know where at least $1,650 of that money went: to a political action committee affiliated with the Tea Party Express, a group opposed to the health reform law that helped nab him.

Now, if this man did what was alleged to have done, he should spend a long time behind bars.

What is telling is how AOL tries to spin this, as if the purpose of the fraud were to help the Tea Party.  Even the article’s headline suggests as much, “Jacques Roy, Charged With $375 Million In Health Care Fraud, Gave Money To Tea Party.”

By contrast, none of their headlines on Tony Rezko’s troubles with the law reference his relationship to Barack Obama–though they do come close here, but that relates to Rod Blagojevich’s woes–and not those of the one-time fundraiser for the ambitious state Senator from Chicago.  (Rezko, a convicted felon, now sits in prison, serving a 10 1/2-sentence “for extorting millions of dollars from firms seeking state business or regulatory approval“.)

(According to the New York Times, Mr. Rezko donated more to Mr. Obama’s first campaign than Dr. Roy donated (in total) to the Tea Party Express:  the then-state legislator’s “first campaign donations included $2,000 from Mr. Rezko’s companies.“)

Look, I know that many conservatives really don’t like Mitt Romney, with one pundit recently calling him “Obama lite.”  Said pundit must have missed the former Massachusetts governor’s economic and tax plan which seeks to cut government and simply our tax structure rather than expand the one and make the latter more complex (as Obama proposes).

And one another thing, our friends in the legacy media really don’t like Mitt Romney.  They delight in trumpeting his gaffes (while ignoring Obama’s) and are eager to downplay his successes.  Take a gander at a story AOL featured last night, repeating the spin Rick Santorum offered in an e-mail to a list he bought from a conservative magazine (hence my receipt of this missive):

If Mitt Romney has earned the Huffington Post’s enmity, he must be doing something right. No, Mitt Romney is not the ideal conservative candidate, but, as the campaign has progressed, he has embraced bolder conservative policies. He is, Fred Barnes observes in the Weekly Standard, “finally sounding like a conservative.”

Should Romney win, he’ll face a Congress likely more conservative than the current federal legislature and its leaders will press him to hold to his promises.

Recall, that back in 2000, George W. Bush did not campaign on fiscally conservative domestic agenda; the congressional leadership in 2001 was far less conservative than it is today.  They had no grounds to hold him to promises of spending restraint.

Perhaps the reason our friends in the legacy media want to downplay Romney’s successes is that they, like Obama, seem to genuinely fear his nomination.  He has shown an ability to punch back, a quality John McCain seemed to have lost in his quarter-century in Congress.

UPDATE:  Oops, well, it wasn’t a tie after all.  The HuffPo reports, Mitt Romney Beats Rick Santorum In Michigan Delegate Race: 16-14. At the end of the article, they offer a correction, but not about the inaccurate report that headlined their main page last night.