Our friends at Breitbart.com have relaunched the portals to their media empire, integrating into one “big” site today.  This project has been in the works for weeks, and the late Andrew Breitbart (how odd it still is to say that!) had worked tirelessly to bring it to fruition.  All of the components of the Breitbart empire now come together under one unified banner — Big Hollywood, Big Peace, Big Government, Big Journalism, and Breitbart.tv.  The editors reassert Andrew’s mission:

Prior to his passing, Andrew Breitbart said that the mission of the Breitbart empire was to exemplify the free and fearless press that our Constitution protects–but which, increasingly, the mainstream media denies us.

“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” – “Who guards the guardians?” Andrew saw himself in that role—as a guardian protecting Americans from the left’s “objective” loyal scribes.

Andrew wanted to do what the mainstream media would not. First and foremost: Andrew pledged to vet President Barack H. Obama.

Andrew did not want to re-litigate the 2008 election. Nor did he want to let Republicans off the hook. Instead, he wanted to show that the media had failed in its most basic duty: to uncover the truth, and hold those in power accountable, regardless of party.

From today through Election Day, November 6, 2012, we will vet this president–and his rivals.

That effort includes Andrew’s last blast at Barack Obama and his Saul Alinsky roots, which conservative writers like David Freddoso and Stanley Kurtz pointed out in 2007-8, but which the mainstream media roundly ignored:

In 1998, a small Chicago theater company staged a play titled The Love Song of Saul Alinsky, dedicated to the life and politics of the radical community organizer whose methods Obama had practiced and taught on Chicago’s South Side.

Obama was not only in the audience, but also took the stage after one performance, participating in a panel discussion that was advertised in the poster for the play. …

So, what’s in the play? It truly is a love song to Alinsky. In the first few minutes of the play, Alinsky plays Moses – yes, the Biblical Moses – talking to God. The play glorifies Alinsky stealing food from restaurants and organizing others to do the same, explaining, “I saw it as a practical use of social ecology: you had members of the intellectual community, the hope of the future, eating regularly for six months, staying alive till they could make their contributions to society.”

In an introspective moment, Alinsky rips America: “My country … ‘tis of whatthehell / And justice up a tree … How much can you sell / What’s in it for me.” He grins about manipulating the Christian community to back his programs. He talks in glowing terms about engaging in Chicago politics with former Mayor Kelly. He rips the McCarthy committee, mocking, “Everyone was there, when you think back – Cotton Mather, Hester Prynn, Anne Hutchinson, Tom Paine, Tom Jefferson … Brandeis, Holmes … Gene Debs and the socialists … Huey Long … Imperial Wizards of all stripes … Father Coughlin and his money machine … Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd … and a kicking chorus of sterilized reactionaries singing O Come, All Ye Faithful …”

And Alinsky talks about being the first occupier – shutting down the O’Hare Airport by occupying all the toilet stalls, using chewing gum to “tie up the city, stop all traffic, and the shopping, in the Loop, and let everyone at City Hall know attention must be paid, and maybe we should talk about it.” As Alinsky says, “Students of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your juicy fruit.”

The play finishes with Alinsky announcing he’d rather go to Hell than Heaven. Why? “More comfortable there. You see, all my life I’ve been with the Have-Nots: here you’re a Have-Not if you’re short of money, there you’re a Have-Not if you’re short of virtue. I’d be asking more questions, organizing them. They’re my kind of people – Hell would be Heaven for me.”

At this late date, I’m not sure how much this will impact the election.  It helps to explain why Obama pushed for shell legislation like ObamaCare and Dodd-Frank that shifts legislative power from Congress to the executive branch, and how we can expect that to turn out.  Otherwise, Republicans will have plenty on the record over the last three-plus years to use in a campaign against Obama.  He has to run on a record now, and that record has produced chronic unemployment, economic stagnation, and serious incursions on liberty, as we have seen in the application of ObamaCare mandates.  Still, Breitbart.com isn’t a candidate in the race, and it’s not unhelpful to have at least one media outfit doing the kind of vetting on Obama that the mainstream media will perform on the Republican nominee.

Last Friday, I interviewed Big Hollywood contributor and Breitbart friend Adam Baldwin, a gracious friend of mine as well, who spent twenty minutes talking about Andrew and his legacy.  If you missed it last Friday, be sure to catch it today.

Adam Baldwin discusses Andrew Breitbart on The… by cptned

Update: I misspelled Alinsky in the headline; it’s fixed now.