Mourning in America

Like so many others, I haven’t stopped thinking about Andrew Breitbart since we learned the tragic news last week that he died at 43.

It’s not so much “how?”, I can’t stop thinking: why? Why did he have to die? He was in the prime of his life, at the peak of his career, he loved his wife so much, he had four gorgeous kids. Why does it have to be this way?

I’ve been in a blur for days. I knew him but not well enough to be this despondent. Monday night showed me that there are so many others like me, feeling around in the dark without an Andrew Breitbart to guide us.

Two nights ago, my friends David Bernstein, Robert George and I put together an event to celebrate Andrew’s life. We started out with an invite list of about 100, then it ballooned to almost 400. I think over a hundred people showed up. Maybe more. We met in the tiny Sanctuary bar in midtown and toasted the man of men, Andrew Breitbart. The place was super packed, spilling out the door at many points in the night.

So many people had a story. He was funny, he was kind. He was confrontational, he was fearless. No one can take his place. We’re so sad to lose him but we celebrated that we ever had him at all.

We toasted his life. I think the only thing Andrew wouldn’t have liked is that he missed the party.

I only started taking pics pretty late into the event so, unfortunately, I missed a lot of people. If anyone else has pics, please let me know: alarmingnews at gmail.com and I’ll link them here. Also, if anyone has video of my toast or Pamela Geller’s, please, please send it to me.

Crowd out the door to get in (The only faces in the pic are Gerard Perry on the right and Mark Cunningham on the left):

Jeffrey Wendt’s button:

Mark (I didn’t get his last name),Judith Weiss and Jeffrey Wendt:

@Prettynumbers and I

Kyle Smith, Abe Greenwald and @Prettynumbers

Me and my co-host David:

Abe Greenwald, Matt Welch, Michael Moynihan and me.

We toasted. A lot.

That’s Avik Roy in the foreground, super narrow bar in background.

Hunter Walker, from the NY Observer, interviewing Matt Welch. Hunter ended up writing a piece called “What Would Breitbart Do? Manhattan Conservatives Mourn Fallen Firebrand”

It was an amazing night. So many different kinds of people made the trip from all over the tri-state area to celebrate the life of this incredible man. R.I.P. Andrew Breitbart. You’re already so missed.

UPDATE: Anthony Bialy has a take from the Toast.

MORE: Pamela Geller writes it up as does Big Fur Hat.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Gerard at American Rattlesnake has a great write-up.