Its been awhile, but I knew it wouldn’t be long before the self-appointed Pope of Virginia Beach opened his mouth again.
What do Hugo Chavez and Harriet Miers have in common?
Pat Robertson: The rhetorical hit man who opined several weeks ago that Chavez, the Venezuelan president, should be assassinated now has thrown down the gauntlet for senators who oppose Miers’s nomination for the Supreme Court.
“Now they’re going to turn against a Christian who is a conservative picked by a conservative president and they’re going to vote against her for confirmation?” he said Thursday on “The 700 Club,” his voice sarcastic with disbelief. “Not on your sweet life, if they want to stay in office.”
It’s becoming almost routine, this strident talk. Indeed, Robertson, 75, has a long history of controversial statements, dating at least to his infamous 1991 conspiracist tract, “The New World Order.” And he shows no sign of slowing down.
If anything, he seems to be getting nuttier as the years go on. Witness his other recent statements:
Last month, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Robertson said, “We have killed over 40 million unborn babies in America.” Then he mused about American society being “unable somehow to defend ourselves against some of the attacks that are coming against us, either by terrorists or now by natural disaster? Could they be connected in some way?”
Robertson’s style is that of the demagogue, some critics say, who profits from the sense of marginalization felt by many conservative Christians — the us-vs.-them mentality that courses through the evangelical Christian movement.
“If you watch his program on a regular basis, you find that he has created a kind of alternative world view that he presents to his viewers,” says Robert Boston of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Boston is no fan of Robertson, it should be noted. He wrote the 1996 book “The Most Dangerous Man in America? Pat Robertson and the Rise of the Christian Coalition.”
And his influence has declined as a result:
A Senate Republican source burst out laughing when told of Robertson’s threat on the Miers nomination. “I don’t know anybody on the Hill who’s going to quake in their boots when Pat Robertson issues some sort of a threat or a decree,” said the source, who requested anonymity to protect his boss.
Well, at least there’s some good news.
Previous Posts:
(Not) Our Final Imam Robertson Update
Imam Robertson Update
Imam Robertson
