From One Man to Another: The Saga of Mike Pence, John Lewis, and Andrew Breitbart
On March 23 of this year, the day the House of Representatives passed health care reform, many of the Democratic members of Congress went about their business in the capital and walked among protesters of the bill gathered in the streets. A few of those protesters called Congressional Black Caucus Members Reps. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and Andre Carson (D-Ind.) niggers. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), also of the Congressional Black Caucus, was spit on, though he did not file any charges against the man who spit on him. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), arguably the most high-profile openly gay elected official in the country, was called a faggot. These events were reported by the media and condemned by the leaders of both parties. Then a funny thing happened—several prominent conservative internet pundits called “Video or it didn’t happen.” Only one prominent Republican, Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), Chairman of the House Republican Conference, has publicly defended the integrity of his fellow members of Congress.
Led by Andrew Breitbart (of Breitbart.com, breitbart.tv, Big Hollywood, Big Government, Big Journalism, and what seems like several million shouting matches across various cable news shows and YouTube clips of conservative rallies and conferences), the pundits claimed the events had been fabricated by Lewis, et al, and fed to a complicit liberal-controlled media machine. This accusation has become something of a meme in the right-wing internet world, and has escalated to the point of Breitbart offering—betting, really—a $10,000 donation to the United Negro College Fund if someone could offer “verifiable video evidence” of the events or if Rep. Lewis will pass a lie detector test. Then he raised his bet to $100,000. No one has yet indulged him, and he has since taken that as proof that the events were fabricated. Michelle Malkin has parroted Breitbart’s claim, as has RedState’s Erick Erickson, who said it on CNN. (The travesty of Erick Erickson’s employment at CNN is another rant unto itself.)
Let us leave aside the passive-aggressive racism of Breitbart’s & Co.’s continued and vehement denials that anyone in their beloved 80 percent white tea party movement could harbor racial prejudice and get carried away during protests on a very tense day. Let us also avoid going down the rabbit hole of what their “if it wasn’t recorded, it didn’t happen” stance implies for the philosophical understanding of reality and what is true in the contemporary world dominated as it is by the mediasphere and the voyeurism and exhibitionism of people’s self-surveillance where Big Brother is no longer the government or any organized body but simply everyone around you. Because to me, the most interesting part of this whole sordid affair is Mike Pence.
On April 9, at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans, Pence told the Washington Post’s David Weigel this:
“A couple of weeks before the alleged incident occurred, I was walking across the bridge in Selma, Ala., with John Lewis,” said Pence. “I take at face value what John Lewis said. If John Lewis said he heard it, I believe he’s a man of integrity. And I would denounce those kinds of statements in the strongest possible terms.”
It struck me as important that Pence mentioned his personal relationship with Lewis. They know each other, they have to work together as members of Congress. Andrew Breitbart has probably never met John Lewis, and never will. Neither, I bet, has Malkin or Erickson. Pence had nothing obvious to gain politically from taking Lewis’ side. He just knew the man, and stuck up for his honor. It was a profoundly human thing to do.
Not to get all touchy-feely, but we sometimes forget that the United States Congress, and the government in general, is just a collection of human beings working together to improve and maintain our great nation. They are more than just a collage of slogans, soundbites, bad jokes, posters, 30-second TV spots, and ideologies. They are people of flesh and blood, of families and friends, of hopes and dreams. And they work together and get to know each other.
John Lewis is not a human being to Breitbart & Co., just a target. He is an instrument they can play on to drum up controversy and attention. As former Bush speechwriter David Frum (you know you’re in trouble when the man who coined “Axis of Evil” is the voice of reason) wrote in a brilliant post (titled “Waterloo”) on his blog FrumForum:
“Overheated talk has made it impossible for representatives to represent and elected leaders to lead. The real leaders [of the GOP] are on TV and radio [and the internet], and they have very different imperatives from people in government. Talk radio thrives on confrontation and recrimination.”
Frum’s main example was popular talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, but Malkin, Erickson, and Breitbart in particular all follow this model, and often take it even further. Everywhere he goes, Breitbart has his own camera crew following him, because he knows that every time he runs into someone who disagrees with him even slightly he can start a shouting match, get emotions running high, maybe provoke someone into saying something stupid, and make a compelling YouTube video that gets several million views and gets his various websites increased traffic, making him more money, which he can then gamble away daring members of Congress to let him impugn their integrity.
I have a hunch that he wouldn’t be nearly as effective a provocateur if he knew his targets personally, if they were his friends. Andrew Breitbart is also a human being, with feelings. No matter who you are, it’s much easier to hurl outrageous accusations at a stranger than at your friend.
Which is why, when it comes to the character of members of Congress, I’ll take Mike Pence’s word over Andrew Breitbart’s, “verifiable video evidence” be damned.
