In 1997 George Stephanopolous suggested that we assasinate Hussein. He was not alone. Thomas Friedman, Sam Donaldson, Bill Kriston, Jonathan Alter all agreed. There were others, can't remember them all.

I'm not suggesting they were correct, but in view of our current problems, we should at least review this in historical perspective.

I mention all this because I think Robertson's call for Chavez' demise is being portrayed as something so unheard of and such a singular event. It is not.

Oh, and of course, in it's usual fashion, The Post has attached this to the President. Predictable.

I certainly wasn't terribly surprised by Robertson's remarks. However, they do seem to be getting more outrageous with each outburst. Robertson enjoys the limelight,the cameras, the controversy. If he can't get attention legitimately, "assasinate" and "knock him off" or words to that effect will fill the bill. Back in the day John Gotti would have been proud.

The religious right should be reeling a little by his comments. He and his followers were very instrumental in voting in the present administration. The 700 Club had no response, saying they were "too busy" to offer a comment. I'll bet. The pall of hypocrisy hangs heavily and the sanctimonious piety of the "oh so right" look foolish. I couldn't be happier.

Great headline! (But if you're going to change "Who" to "Whom" then you should update the browser title bar as well...

I'm not a bit surprised by Robertson suggesting the U.S. assassinate some head of state he doesn't like. Far more interesting and surprising, though, was his rather off-the-cuff (and possibly unintentional) remark about not needing to spend $200 billion to eliminate a perceived adversary. Did he actually just say the Iraq war hasn't been worth the expense? Oops....

Robertson didn't say the Iraq war was not worth the expense. He said there was cheaper way to do it. Of course, that would have left the two sons. So, the Stephanopolous et al approach wouldn't really have solved anything.

Rick

Since I've been told I'm a rightwing gasbag, I guess I'm one of those people who's supposed to be embarassed every time Pat Robertson says something off the wall. I'm sorry, but I'm not embarassed at all. Why should I be? I didn't say it. He did. More important, why is this supposed to be an issue for the Bush administration?

Writers on the left don't seem to be the least bit embarrased by any of Rev. Jesse Jackson's corporate shake-down schemes, such as the one that secured lucrative beer distributorships for his cronies. And you folks on the left always seem to politely avert your eyes from the race-baiting antics of Rev. Al Sharpton, such as when he tried to ruin an innocent man by backing the Tawana Brawley hoax lawsuit, or incited an anti-Semitic race riot in Crown Heights, N.Y., or agitated protestors in Harlem to the point where one of them eventually burned down a Jewish-owned store and shot one of his employees to death.

Here's a suggestion for all of you who find Rev. Robertson's remarks to be such a big deal: Before you get all worked up over the occasional foolishness of the "Reverends" on the right, how about showing a little concern over the unabashed hate-mongering of the "Reverends" on the left.

The Bush administration is distancing themselves from Robertson, the State Department saying his words were "inappropriate." Since Robertson and his followers are a large part of Bush's base of support, it would appear they prefer to look the other way. It's funny how the right considers these actions "occasional foolishness" but consider words by Reverends Jackson or Sharpton unabashed hate-mongering. How typical. I suspect another gas leak.....

Sheila,

You seem to disagree with my characterizing Robertson's remarks as "foolishness," while I called Sharpton's remarks "hate-mongering." Here's the difference: When Robertson shot his mouth off about Chavez, he didn't actually get anyone killed. The same thing cannot be said of Al Sharpton.

In 1995 Sharpton worked up a crowd in Harlem, calling a Jewish store owner a "white interloper," which led to arson and a total of eight deaths including a helpless store employee. In 1991, at the height of the Crown Heights crisis in Brooklyn, Sharpton's contribution to peace and goodwill was to say, “If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house."

You object to my describing that as hate-mongering? Okay, fine. Then what would you call it?

Gary - I totally agree that Sharpton doles out hate-mongering comments and would hopefully not be taken too seriously in his rantings. My point was that you seem to have a cavalier attitude towards Robertson in that "he said it, I didn't." True, but I'm sure you would admit he is very closely linked with the Bush administration as he helped get the religious right-wing base to help put him in office.