As the saying goes, by their enemies you shall know him. A Daily Kos blogger calls this week’s interviewee “a lying hack.” Media Matters called his work “sad, self-serving.” A Center for American Progress flack implied that he was against senior citizens. You can tell when folks on our side are effective because they get under skin of the liberals.
Flynn is the Political Editor for Breitbart.com and constant critic of the media’s partisanship. At the 2012 Republican National Convention he told The Washington Times, "Close observers of the media have seen their devolution into an active partisan interest group. They are not in Tampa to report the events of the convention. They are in Tampa to frame the GOP message for the general public and find disparate items that can be twisted together to paint an explicitly negative impression.”
For over 20 years Flynn worked for policy and legislative organizations, including the American Legislative Exchange Council, Reason Foundation and Illinois General Assembly. He has testified before Congress and to over two dozen state legislatures. He also frequently appears on CNN, CNBC, Fox News, ABC World News Tonight and C-SPAN.
Not too long ago I saw Flynn and his wife, Holly, at the “Breitbart Embassy” in Washington D.C. (By the way, I have nothing but respect for a man who has the good sense to marry up, as he did with the lovely Holly.) At the gathering I was reminded of the fantastic group of people that Andrew Breitbart partnered with over the years. There is no doubt that Flynn is carrying on Breitbart’s legacy of exposing liberals and their cohorts in the media.
Each week the De Pasquale's Dozen asks political figures and free market-minded writers and entertainers to take a break from politics and talk about their pop culture obsessions.
1. If there were a television channel that showed only one movie over and over, what movie should it be?
There should be a David Lean channel, playing Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago, Bridge on the River Kwai in perpetual loop. All are true testaments to the strength and vitality of individuals against the collective. The individual may be flawed, but it is the greatest force in nature and history.
2. What’s one of your favorite movie quotes?
Two, oddly related:
"Nothing is written." -- Lawrence of Arabia; and
"To smoke, and have coffee-and if you do it together it's fantastic" -- Wings of Desire
3. In A Clockwork Orange, Malcolm McDowell is strapped in with his eyes propped open and forced to watch images until he was "cured." If you could give President Obama, Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Leader Harry Reid the "Clockwork Orange treatment," what movie would you make them watch?
Anything by Ingmar Bergman. Cruel, but they deserve it.
4. What pop culture souvenir do you own that people would be surprised to learn that you cherish?
I don't know if it’s a surprise, but I cherish my posters from the New Orleans Jazz Fest. I went to my first one over two decades ago. It was my family's vacation. That was how we rolled and probably explains more about me than I wish to disclose.
5. What's your current “guilty pleasure” non-news television show?
I don't believe in guilty pleasures. Pleasures are pleasures. But, the one show I love that no one in my family gets is BBC's “Top Gear.” How can it be that only the British can use government money to make a hilarious, rip-roaring defense of fantastic, horse-power maximizing, gas-guzzling auto engineering? Don't the Brits mostly drive peddle cars now? I'm annoyed that I have to turn to the Brits to dash the green enviro fantasies and extol the previously American car culture, but damn that show is funny.
6. What’s the best present you ever received as a child?
Weirdly, it was a statue of David's painting of Napoleon crossing the Alps. Long damn story.
7. What was the first rock concert you ever attended and where did you sit and who went with you?
English Beat. 8th Grade. Snuck into bar, Mabels, in Champaign-Urbana, IL. Bangles opened. Could see the playlist taped to the floor of the stage.
8. What advice do you remember your mother or father giving you? Did you take it?
Not so much advice, as a way of life. We had interactions with every social circle and they treated everyone exactly the same. They showed me the beauty of basic humanity. Everyone has something to say or contribute. Everyone should have a voice.
9. If Republicans and Democrats had theme songs for 2012 what would they be?
Democrats theme is obviously Mozart's Requiem. They are dying. Hopefully a new Democrat party can spring from the progressives' ashes.
GOP: Beethoven's 9th "Ode to Joy" Symphony.
Libertarians: The Jam “Going Underground”
10. What would you like tomorrow's headline to say?
FEC rules that Network News Must File as In-Kind Contributions to Obama Campaign
11. What books are on you most looking forward to reading?
Obama's memoir of a one-term presidency.
12. Tell me about the moment you decided to enter the political arena.
I had an overnight show on my college radio station. It was November, way late into the night. There were no computers really then. My AP newswire machine started spitting out information. People had breached the Berlin Wall. The Wall was coming down. I was sitting in my little studio in the middle of the Midwest and realized everything in the world was changing. And I thought, “Game On”!
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