Pat Robertson = Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs?
I always try to give people the benefit of the doubt. But with "Reverend" Pat Robertson, that's really pretty hard to do. On "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos today, Robertson managed to accuse "liberals" of "destroying the fabric that holds our country together", and also said that a "gradual erosion of the cultural consensus" [which apparently he assumes there once was] is "more serious" than Islamic terrorism.
Asked about quotes in which he had suggested that people who aren't Christian or Jewish should not serve in government, Robertson said first "well just read what the Islamic people say," and continued pushing the ridiculous notion that all Muslims support jihad against the United States. Asked by Stephanopoulos, Robertson refused to distance himself from past comments to the effect that Muslims and Hindus should not be appointed to the federal judiciary. "Only those who assent to the principles of the Declaration of Independence, only those who assent to the principles underlying the Constitution" should be appointed, says Robertson. Well yes that's true, but to suggest that anyone not of your religious faith cannot assent to those principles? Well "Reverend," that's just ridiculous.
In what must have given Bill Frist a little heartburn this morning, Robertson noticeably omitted him from a list of those he said he would be interested in seeing run for the White House in 2008. Sam Brownback got a recommendation, as did George Allen of Virginia. But Robertson had to be asked specifically about Frist, and the best he could do was "I don't think he's interested in running for president." Ouch.
And if a moderate were to get the nomination in 2008? Would religious evangelicals break away from the GOP? Robertson said not necessarily, if that moderate were Giuliani, but added "McCain I'd vote against under any circumstances."
Hmmm, yet another reason to make the Arizona Straight-Talker our nominee!
As soon as a transcript appears I'll post a link.
[Update: Oh, I forgot the part where Robertson called Ruth Bader Ginsburg a Communist because she once worked for the ACLU. -- 11:08 a.m.]
[Further Update: Sunday Morning Talk has more on the Robertson remarks here. -- 12:07 p.m.]
posted by JBD @ 10:04 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
*sigh* Robertson is *such* a nutbag... I'm really sorry he's still running around loose.
What's interesting about his statements--apart from the religious bigotry, the willingness to lie to preserve and promote the God of Truth, and his Coulter-like ability to just Make Things Up--is that he's a flaming hypocrite. He talks about family values but neglects to mention that he got his wife pregnant substantially before they got married. He acts like a soft-spoken nice old man and preaches unbelievable intolerance and hatred in the name of his Gawd. He talks about humanitarian values and neglects to mention that his public financial statements show that he invested over $1M with Charles Taylor (the former Liberian president who would do anything for any terrorist group as long as you gave him the money) in the Liberian diamond mines. This last item, btw, is something that is a federal crime under the Patriot Act and a number of other things: spending money on terrorist groups and terrorist fronts and actively supporting genocide. I would pay $29.95 to see Robertson's trial for these crimes on HBO pay-per-view, I would, I would. That'd be Really Good TV.
And I'm honestly surprised that Robertson doesn't like McCain, who's got pretty conservative politics, except that McCain is not a weak man who can be led around by the nose like some people. I agree with you: it's one more reason I'd like to see McCain as the 2008 Rep candidate myself.
Yeah McCain and Robertson got into a little dustup in 2000; right before the Virginia primary McCain made a speech in Virginia Beach. Some of the best lines:
"I am a pro-life, pro-family, fiscal conservative, and advocate of a strong defense. And yet, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and a few Washington leaders of the pro-life movement call me an unacceptable presidential candidate. They distort my pro-life positions and smear the reputations of my supporters. Why?
Because I don't pander to them, because I don't ascribe to their failed philosophy that money is our message. I believe in the cause of conservative reform. I believe that because we are right we will prevail in the battle of ideas, unspoiled by the taint of a corrupt campaign finance scheme that works against the very conservative reform of government that is the object of our labors. The Republican Party will prevail because of our principles—because that's what it's about, my friends—principles, not special interest money or empire or ego.
... Neither party should be defined by pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance whether they be Louis Farrakhan or Al Sharpton on the left, or Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell on the right."
And that is why Robertson will "not support McCain under any circumstances." :-)
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