Ted Cruz toasts Breitbart as a 'great and fearless leader' at CPAC

At an event for bloggers at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Thursday night, tea party-backed Sen. Ted Cruz (R-SC) toasted the late conservative activist Andrew Breitbart as a "great and fearless leader."

Following a confrontation with Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) over guns at a Senate Judiciary Committee, Cruz met up with conservative bloggers at the 4th annual Blog Bash, which bills itself as "the largest gathering of right-of-center bloggers."

"Let me tell you, the men and women in this room, you represent power and you represent democracy," Cruz told the crowd. "Let me tell you, each of you, you scare the hell out of Washington... Y'all are on front lines of taking this country back."

The Texas Republican ended his pep talk by holding up a beer in Breitbart's memory.

"I want to collectively remember our friend. And a toast to Andrew Breitbart," he said, turning up the bottle. "A great and fearless leader, and we all carry on with his unshakable, fearless spirit to speak the truth to power. And the more they quiver, the better job we're doing. God bless."

Cruz' speech sent the conservative blog Weasel Zippers into a state of giddiness.

"Must stop swooning… must stop swooning… I’m trying as hard as I can," blogger Zip wrote.

Watch this video, uploaded to YouTube on March 14, 2013.