Andrew Breitbart Gone.

Note: I will be updating this post through the day with thoughts from folks whose opinions matter.

And tonight on my radio program, we’ll play clips of interviews I did with Andrew, one while in Pasadena where we sat at the back of the Tea Party Express bus and chatted about life and the Left.

Please scroll down for updates. And feel free to add your comments about AB, the lion of the new media. I may read them tonight on my radio show.

Earlier today…

This is so sudden, so shocking, I don’t know what to say, except I feel a profound sense of sadness that the lion of the new media has left us.

I met Andrew Breitbart three years ago at CPAC. He was congenial, approachable, and invited me to write for his newly launched BIG GOVERNMENT online news site.

“Devastated” is a word I’d save to describe the loss of a loved one, but honestly? That’s how I feel at this news. Devastated.

My prayers and condolences go to his wife Susan and their children. And to his father-in-law Orson Bean, who he loved and admired so well.

Rest in Peace, faithful and courageous warrior. We will surely and sorely miss you.

After all, like so many of us on the Right, Andrew started out as a liberal. He loved fighting the hard-core Leftists, but he firmly believed that, by fighting them, he could bring them into the light. And more than that, he believed that he could rouse the sheeples out there, the ones who are as we once were — Leftists by default rather than by conviction — and turn them into true Patriots who love and support the American dream, beginning with the Constitution.

From TMH at The Noisy Room:

Andrew was the epitome of a warrior. He dared to go where others would not, so that America could regain her freedom. He was the leader of the Tea Party Movement and he was a giant in the New Media. He pioneered a future way to get news information that was honest and timely. He brought truth and light into the darkest of corners and tread unafraid amid evil and its supporters. He has not gone, just shifted his presence. His ventures in Big Hollywood, Big Peace, Big Journalism and Big Government will continue as will the Tea Party. Andrew, you will be missed, but we will keep fighting.

From Bookworm Room

The Anchoress
Ed Morrissey
Matt Welch
Jim Geraghty
Ace with A Brazen Moment
Jonah Goldberg
Huffpo has reactions from Drudge and Arianna
Josh Marshall
Steven Green at Vodkapundit
Dave Weigel
National Review Reactions
Tucker Carlson
Fox News Reactions
Da Tech Guy
Jimmie Bise, Jr
Daniel Foster
Stacy McCain
Joshua Pundit

From Peter Ingemi,  Da Tech Guy:

My most vivid memory is of a particularly interview, it was at CPAC 2011, I asked Andrew for an interview and he promptly leaped on a table and conducted the interview lying on the table until the hotel made him get off, but that was his style.

Andrew always took the path of waving the red cloth in front of the bull of the MSM and the left and they always charged. He covered the stories that they would not and baited them to respond because he understood better than almost anyone else that it was the stories the media refused to cover, more than what they actually said, that really was the lifesblood and power of the MSM leftist bias.