There’s something a little too James O’Keefe about Steven Crowder’s “I got assaulted by the vicious, leftist union supporters in Michigan” story. Part of it is that like O’Keefe, Crowder is an Andrew Breitbart acolyte, now palling around the Michigan union protests with the Breitbartian Lee Stranahan - who still loves scamster O’Keefe. Secondly, like O’Keefe, Crowder admitted to embarking on his video project with a hostile agenda. Thirdly, the integrity of the video of the assault on Crowder has come into question.

I doubt I’ll be able to shed much light on what happened to Crowder at the protest of "right to work" legislation in Michigan. And let me state unequivocally that no matter how much I despise Crowder (and let me assure you I detest him with every bone in my body), I do not condone any violence toward him no matter what he did. However, that doesn’t mean he is necessarily blameless. Or acting in good faith.

For a guy who just got beat up, Crowder couldn’t have looked more pleased with himself on Hannity last night, like the proverbial cat who swallowed the canary.

He said the beating was “completely physically unprovoked.” Then with a goofy, comedian expression, he sneered, “ Apparently, I provoked it by asking them why they’re against ‘right to work.’ By asking them, 'What about someone in Michigan who might want to work for a company and might not want to join a union?' And then, of course, I asked them as they were consistently destroying private property, with people in the tent… I asked them to stop… Apparently, I did provoke the four unanswered punches directly to my face. Call me a provocateur, Sean.”

I don’t know about you but if I went to a demonstration and merely asked some tough questions and wound up getting assaulted, I would not have had such a smarmy, smug attitude. I’d be upset, angry and give details about exactly what happened and my own non-aggressive, unthreatening behavior. Well, OK, we’re all different. But then Crowder said he’s working with Andrew Breitbart even “in death” and added ominously, “Right now, it’s a very serious line being drawn, Sean.”

It sounded like a page right out of Andrew Breitbart’s “war against the institutional left.”  So did Crowder’s later remark:

I want to make something very clear here, Sean. I never went out here to try and be assaulted, as leftists might say. I went out here to prove the left for who they truly are. Certainly, these union thugs. And I’ve achieved that.

So how had he planned to prove "union thugs" "for who they truly are?” By just “asking questions?” Crowder didn’t say and Hannity didn’t ask.

Talking Points Memo (h/t/ Aria) reported that Eddie Vale, spokesperson for the AFL-CIO, has said the protest was "almost universally peaceful and calm." Furthermore:

“While of course we do not condone the actions taken by a small group of people, the disciples of James O’Keefe were attempting to instigate the crowd all day,” Vale said, referring to the right-wing, video-camera-wielding provocateur. “As soon as the incident happened our marshals worked with the police to move the AFP people through the crowd to safety with no injuries.”

In fact, the video shown on Hannity seemed to show protesters intervening on Crowder's behalf. But Crowder didn't bring it up and Hannity showed no interest in Vale's perspective.

In his obituary of Andrew Breitbart, New York Times media critic David Carr wrote that when Breitbart was first reported dead, many who knew him thought it was a prank:

After a lifetime of pranks, capers and so many people wishing him dead, it would have been just like Mr. Breitbart to stage his own demise.

…Mr. Breitbart specialized in teasing a small ember of a story, whether it was an inconsistency or a gaffe, and dumping gasoline on it until it blew up — sometimes on him, sometimes on others. “If you do a good enough job, you can force them to make a mistake,” he wrote in his book. “When they do, you must be ready to exploit it.”

Those passages seemed eerily relevant as Crowder, supposedly rattled by his encounter with the vicious thugs, blatantly exploited it into a self-aggrandizing and hostile stunt – in which he presumably planned to beat his attacker to a pulp.

I just want to say one thing really importantly. I am issuing an ultimatum right now. They are trying to find this man who assaulted me, find this man who assaulted other people and you have a choice. You can come forward, I’ll press charges, you’ll go to jail. Or, since you wanted to cheap shot me, we can host a bout in a sanctioned, legalized, MMA competition where the winner will get the money to go to the charity of his choice. So all of this money that has been raised to have this man prosecuted and put in jail? I will match that and donate it to the union of his choice. It’s your choice: jail or face me like a man, one on one, legally. And I am easy to find.

Now that’s just bizarre. What is this, MMA at the OK Corral?

Of course, Hannity didn’t mind that Crowder was looking to subvert the criminal justice process and turn it into a vigilante circus.

Hannity said admitingly, “I’ve known you for a very long time. You are actually very well equipped to protect yourself. You decided not to fight back… You do have the ability to fight back.”

Crowder explained:

Let me say a couple of things, Sean. First thing, it would prove nothing and secondly… I literally believe, Sean, that if I had defended myself at all, even flicked a small little jab, that they would have killed me where I stood. I have never seen this kind of angry, vitriolic hatred.”

With a hideous, Joker’s smile, he said, “Maybe I deserve it, Sean.”