Drew Friedman

We doubt this is the last we'll hear from beyond the grave from Andrew Breitbart

In the fall of 2009, Jame O'Keefe was just coming on the scene with a video which would successfully, if deceitfully and dishonestly, dismantle ACORN.

At that point in time, O'Keefe was railing that he was "absolutely independent." In the first investigative piece we wrote for this publication, the Voice showed this was hokum. Working with a tip from Liz Farkas, O'Keefe's classmate at Rutgers, we were able to trace O'Keefe's financial support back to conservative Silicon Valley venture capitalist Peter Thiel and to the Leadership Institute, the breeding ground of Ralph Reed, Grover Norquist and Karl Rove.

Well, it turns out O'Keefe was even less "absolutely independent" than that. Writing for Wonkette, Farkas and Matthew Phelan reveal that O'Keefe and his partner Hannah Giles were in touch with Andrew Breitbart before their cross country "Pimp N' Prostitute" tour, and that each were on Breitbart's bankroll by September, 2009...when the ACORN videos came out and O'Keefe was still claiming his autonomy.

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When Rush Limbaugh called Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke a "slut" and a "prostitute" on his radio show Feb. 29, it sure seemed like the end of an era might be upon us.

Public outcry prompted sponsors to pull support from the show, leaving many to wonder whether the conservative stalwart would have much longer to lash out against liberals and ladies.

To be fair, Rush did damage control issue an apology, but many saw the mea culpa as meaningless -- worthy of all-out mocking.

But as bad as Rush's gaffe might be -- and to be clear, it is bad -- you have to wonder: could this bolster Limbaugh's languishing career?

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In September of 2010, the Voice published our cover story "White America Has Lost Its Mind." At the time, we thought the disease of crazy white people infecting the national zeitgeist was at its most noxious state. However, that period was before Donald Trump took birtherism to a whole new level, thrice-married adulterer Newt Gingrich took to protecting marriage (when he wasn't lecturing the "food stamp president" or hectoring black folks about food-stamps), and the entire Republican party declared war on birth-control people who have sex women. It almost makes the summer of 2010, in those early days of the Tea Party when healthcare reform passed, look like a halcyon era of first-rate mental health and civil public discourse.

We were honored when Drew Friedman illustrated the "White America" cover. But we realized, glancing at the asylum tableau last week, that the crazy white people he captured in cartoon format aren't doing so well. Let's take a look at the rough ride those five straightjacket wearing leaders of the right have had in the intervening months, especially in the past week.

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Jeremy Hooper has identified the money shot audio of Michele Bachmann's 2004 speech at the 2004 National Education Leadership Conference in Minneapolis. Although she insists she's not "bashing people who are homosexuals, who are lesbians, who are bisexual, who are transgendered," Bachmann goes on to say she has a "member of our family that is" in "the lifestyle," and that "this is not funny. It's a very sad life. It's part of Satan, I think, to say this is gay. It's anything but gay."

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