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August 22, 2005
And Now, Insanity Corner With Pat Robertson

When conservatives want to find something juicy to fisk, we turn to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. When liberals want to do the same, they turn to Pat Robertson, who fulfills much the same role as the Strib as a fount of barking idiocy. Today, score one for the port side of the blogosphere, as Media Matters notes Robertson's latest insanity on Hugo Chavez. On today's 700 Club, Robertson endorses the assassination plot that sprang from Chavez' overactive imagination (emphases mine):

ROBERTSON: There was a popular coup that overthrew him [Chavez]. And what did the United States State Department do about it? Virtually nothing. And as a result, within about 48 hours that coup was broken; Chavez was back in power, but we had a chance to move in. He has destroyed the Venezuelan economy, and he's going to make that a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism all over the continent.

You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. And I don't think any oil shipments will stop. But this man is a terrific danger and the United ... This is in our sphere of influence, so we can't let this happen. We have the Monroe Doctrine, we have other doctrines that we have announced. And without question, this is a dangerous enemy to our south, controlling a huge pool of oil, that could hurt us very badly. We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with.

Er, no. The Monroe Doctrine forbade Europe from interfering in Western Hemisphere politics, establishing American independence on both continents. It did not mean that we reserved the right to stuff Chavez into a trunk and toss him into the Pacific. Nor do we have any proof, or even any allegations, that Chavez has invited al-Qaeda or any Islamists to join up with him. (Neighboring Trinidad and Tobago might be another story, however.)

Media Matters posts the video and the transcript without comment, in a splendid demonstration of the power of understatement. Unfortunately, we have to work a little harder to make it clear that calling for the assassination of a head of state of a country with which we are not in conflict amounts to political insanity. Having someone use their credentials as a Christian broadcaster to issue this kind of advice takes it past political insanity to a moral disgrace, one at which Robertson's viewers should be appalled.

UPDATE: Well, Pacific, Atlantic, Caribbean ... I'm the Captain, not the navigator ...

UPDATE II: Pat Robertson now claims that he was misquoted, taken out of context. Hogwash. Take a look at the video, either at Media Matters or at the Political Teen, which also has it. Crooks and Liars may also have it posted, although I didn't see it on their post that linked back to me here -- and welcome to C&L readers visiting here for the first time.

Sphere It Digg! View blog reactions
Posted by Ed Morrissey at August 22, 2005 5:43 PM

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