Dana Loesch: On Twitter, the Tea Party, and Her Rise in Media

She likes Ministry and the Cure, and was once a registered Democrat. But today, Dana Loesch (pronounced Lash) is a rising star in the world of right-wing commentary. Since she first sprang up with the Tea Party movement in 2009, Loesch has become one of the most frequently featured talking heads on CNN, where she is a contributor, as well as popping up on Real Time With Bill Maher and ABC News programs. Primed to be the next Ann Coulter, she’s following in the footsteps of her mentor, Andrew Breitbart, who passed away earlier this month.

Indeed, last week on Piers Morgan Tonight, she was one of the commentators chatting about the Republican primaries and the Southern strategy to Wolf Blitzer, who was filling in for the host.

“It’s really bittersweet,” she said of her more frequent appearances on Morgan’s show since Breitbart’s death earlier this month. In the days just after he died, she said, “I was sitting there getting ready to do part of the panel in which he used to participate, they had me in the same square that he was in, which was kind of heavy there for a moment.”

Younger (she’s only 32), hipper, and (on TV at least) less divisive than Coulter, the petite, dark-haired Loesch is utterly telegenic. Perhaps that’s partially why Breitbart, upon meeting her for the first time in Quincy, Ill. at a Tea Party convention, decided to take her under his wing, appointing her as the editor of BigJournalism.com.