….and you know what? He deserves every god damned minute of it.
As I wrote on here last night my issues with Ted Kennedy were never personal, only of a political and policy nature. My postings always reflected that; I never took shots at him personally. I simply called him out, when I felt he was being dishonest. Of course, I did it in my traditionally condescending manner. Hey, I am a Conservative Blogger; condescension and being a general asshole are expected. But, I never made it personal. I have towards others in the past and I have deeply regretted it. This is why I follow a rule of conduct; attack the policy, not the person, mock gently, but know the line and never cross it.
Andrew Breitbart crossed it early Wednesday morning, when the news of Ted Kennedy’s passing hit. You can view and sampling of his rather idiotic and obnoxious nonsense by going Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, and Here. In fact, you can view this obnoxious idiot’s account by hovering over this link here.
Now some of you might be shocked and amazed that I would come out and condemn someone like Andrew for saying stuff like this. Well, allow me to explain as to why. I believe in freedom of speech; I really do. But, I also believe in responsibility of that freedom as well. Now, do I believe that the so-called “Thought Police” should scoop up Mr. BreitBart and send him off to a reeducation camp or something silly like that? Of course not. As a libertarian-minded Conservative; I believe in a free market approach to freedom of speech. I believe in letting the free market decide if it wants to be associated with obnoxious speech. If Andrew Breitbart wants to speak his mind about Ted Kennedy; fine, let him do so. But if someone is offended by his speech, they have the absolute right to lodge a complaint to Mr. Breitbart’s advertisers and inform them, that they do not intend to purchase their products, if they continue to sponsor this man’s website.
I believe it would be also fair to point out, that Mr. Breitbart did not use his website to express his opinion of Kennedy. He used the social network Twitter. Which is a very public service, unless you elect to make your updates private. Something that no one hardly ever does. But then again, not many people go around acting foolish like this either.
Again, In closing, I believe that Mr. BreitBart has the right to say what he wishes. That is the core ideal of freedom; however, Mr. Breitbart should be prepared to handle the criticism and the consequences, including the loss of advertisers; for expressing his opinions.