Backtracking at Warp Speed

US evangelist apologizes for Chavez remarks

"Conservative U.S. evangelist Pat Robertson apologized on Wednesday for calling for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, saying he spoke in frustration earlier in the week."

Oh, that's rich...

""We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability," he said on his "The 700 Club" television program."

This wasn't some backroom conversation, Pat, and you weren't debating someone in the heat of the moment - this was on your own show.

"His earlier remarks, said the leader of the world's fifth largest oil exporter was a "terrific danger" to the United States and Chavez intended to become "the launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism.""

These are not the remarks of someone speaking of the cuff - you were speaking with deliberacy and forethought.

"Robertson said that while he was criticized by U.S. political and religious leaders, he found the attention he wanted for what he said was "a growing problem which has largely been ignored.""

There's the money statement right there - "he found the attention he wanted"...

"Earlier in the day he said his remarks had been misinterpreted and "take him out" could refer to kidnapping."

Ho ho ho...Pat! Kidnapping? You're killing me! Ha ha ha - Oh my...

" The Venezuelan foreign ministry said it was not satisfied with U.S. officials' dismissal of Robertson's remarks and wanted the White House to take legal action.

"This public call to assassinate a head of state, considered a crime by all modern legislation, is prosecutable by its very nature. That is what the civilized world is expecting of U.S. authorities," the Venezuelan government said on Wednesday."

However, on the other side of the pond this is almost as amusing. Obviously a dictatorship like in Venezuela would never have heard of free speech, and would assume his statements - as asinine as they were - would be in any way illegal. Every idiot has the God- and state-given right to speak his peace. And it's also amusing in the scary sort of way that Chavez would consider Robertson a "U.S. authority." That probably has Pat pretty proud of himself, right there...

""Mr Robertson has been one of this president's staunchest allies. His statement demands the strongest condemnation by the White House," Venezuela's ambassador to the United States Bernardo Alvarez said."

Well, they actually got that one right. Even broken clocks are right twice a day...

"Chavez was elected in 1998, survived a referendum on his rule last year, and is seen to have a strong chance of winning re-election in 2006."

God Bless Democracy...