I was at Dodger Stadium last night watching the Dodgers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates when my friend Stephen and I got into a discussion about something that had happened at a previous game. I started scrolling through my photos on my phone to try and remember the details and I suddenly spot the above photo.
Wow.
It hit me like I had been punched in the gut.
I had strolled by Andrew at CPAC 2012 in February and casually taken this photo of him on "Radio Row" where dozens of broadcasters are interviewing people at CPAC. Andrew was on a break and he was relaxed and casually chatting with a few other people. I didn't think much of it at the time. I said "Oh hey...there's Andrew! I'll go talk to him later."
I never did.
He would be dead three weeks later.
I didn't consider Andrew a close friend, but we had talked on several occasions and had even had lunch together at CPAC 2010. We were both Conservatives that lived in L.A. and had to deal with a lot of the same issues, so there was some common ground between us.
A month ago, I was at a meeting of the Hollywood Congress of Republicans getting some petition signatures for my run for Congress and several of the speakers were mentioning Andrew in their comments. I got up and, without being prepared to do so, I spoke about Andrew for a few minutes. I said to the crowd that I didn't know him well, but that I knew him enough to know that he would be a little embarrassed by the eulogies.
"Andrew didn't consider himself a hero, or a general, like the media is saying" I said to the surprised crowd.
I continued "He was a hard working guy, a brawler, who believed in truth and justice". I finished by saying that he was "a good man...and we could use more men like him."
The crowd was generally appreciative of my comments, but several speakers after me went on to disagree and say Andrew was a hero and a general and etc, etc...
I just smiled and nodded.
I decided that my own personal tribute to Andrew will be to write his name in on the ballot this year whenever I am confronted by election options that would be unconscionable for any Conservative who loves truth and freedom like Andrew did.
I hope some of you out there will help me spread this message.
Let's show the world the power of Conservatives.
#Breitbart2012
