RADICAL-RIGHT CHIC

When I see (via Instaputz) that today's list at Politico of "50 Politicos to Watch" includes gush about Andrew Breitbart ("The conservative writer and personality lives on the West Coast -- a fact that gives him a certain mystique among Washingtonians accustomed to seeing the same faces again and again. Still, it's more than rarity that makes Breitbart a party get. He's an ideal guest...."), it reinforces my sense that Breitbart's political power is much more likely to be enhanced by the Sherrod incident than curtailed.

And really, why not? Beltway insiders may now realize that Breitbart is unsavory and deceitful, but he seems to have power to do harm -- and that makes him sexy/dangerous. To D.C.'s Village, he's like the self-described father-murderer who dazzles a small Irish town in Synge's Playboy of the Western World; he really is what Tom Wolfe said Black Panthers were to their well-heeled white admirers in Radical Chic. He's mad, bad, and dangerous to know. That makes him hot.

I'm surprised more right-wing bomb-throwers haven't tried to court their ideological enemies this way. Ann Coulter always has, with considerable success, but Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, Savage, Malkin, Palin, and the rest have refused to on principle. That's probably a mistake on their part -- Breitbart shows that you can commit the most vicious acts against non-conservatives and court non-conservatives -- and succeed at both. I expect more and more of these SOBs to learn that lesson.