Jack Grant asks:

How many people seriously believe that Pat Robertson has a hotline in to God?

I say Robertson is an idiot, all those in favor say aye!

John Cole seems to agree?

I had an Idea for a cartoon about Pat Robertson and Bill O'Reilly.I've never drawn a caricature of either one before, so I went looking for a clear image of Pat Robertson. Not wanting to Google "Pat Robertson", I first checked out the old blogroll to see who had something I could work with, and I eventually ended up at Bartcop . Here is the first attempt, a ballpoint pen sketch...

The problem with trying to create a good likeness of Pat Robertson, is you have to keep looking at a picture of Pat Robertson.I had to take a break and shower off. Maybe I need to invest in one of those "Eye Wash Stations" that they have in High School Science Labs.Well, it was back to the drawing board to rework the image, and I got this far before I had to stop.I'm not satisfied... The hair is off, the forehead is off, but a person can only look at a picture of Pat for so long before it is toxic to the eyebones....

Not wanting to abandon the whole idea for the cartoon, I checked in at Sweet Jesus, I hate Bill O'Reilly to look for a clear image. They had a picture that was sufficient, so I started sketching. I'm not sure which is worse, staring at a picture of Pat Robertson or staring at a picture of Bill O'Reilly...I'm not completely satisfied with the likeness, but I can't look at their mugshots anymore today...

Now you know why I haven't drawn any caricatures of Tom Delay yet!

zencomix

Kathy Gill of About.com, has a great roundup of some of the coverage in the blogsphere on the Pat Robertson issue. ISOU is included in the roundup.

Blogosphere on Robertson
It seems Robertson has struck a cord across the blogosphere, especially in the religious realm. Blogging for Liberty reflects my opinion: "Any minister who condones the murder of a person is not reading the same bible I am." He then calls for a boycott of the 700 club.

serotoninrain writes: "You're giving those of us who actually love Jesus a bad headache." And Alex says: "The world needs Pat Robertson's Christianity as much as it needs Osama bin Laden's Islam."

The Purple Pew also looks at Robertson's comments from a religious perspective:

... Pat's latest statement testifies even further that he is no Christian. It's not because he has sinned. We all sin. But when confronted with his sin instead of repent, he lied, committing another sin against God.

There are some great nuggets in this post, from a wide diversity of Bloggers, check it out.

Great Question at the end of the post:

"Question? Define "becoming a dictator" when you've been elected, 71 percent of the population supports you (far more than Bush) and new elections are scheduled for December."

The truth is, that Chavez has strong support in Latin America. The same Latin America that has been victimized by American Politics for decades. Too often, "Dictator," is defined as any leader not catering to U.S. interest. "Pinochet," one of the most murderous Dictators in Latin American History, was all but installed by the Nixon Administration, and the region has a history of exploitation by American interest.

I don't know enough about Chavez one way or the other to judge what kind of President he is, but living in Latin America, I can assure you of one thing, he is a helluva lot more popular than George W. Bush!

(CNN) -- After two days of criticism, Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson apologized for his controversial suggestion that the United States should assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

"Is it right to call for assassination? No, and I apologize for that statement," Robertson said. "I spoke in frustration that we should accommodate the man who thinks the U.S. is out to kill him."

But he compared Chavez to Iraq's Saddam Hussein and Adolph Hitler and quoted German Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer: "[That if a madman were] driving a car into a group of innocent bystanders, then I can't, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe and then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver."

Bonhoeffer was hanged by the Nazis for his involvement in a 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler.

Robertson's rationale for his statement remained unchanged.

"I said before the war in Iraq began that the wisest course would be to wage war against Saddam Hussein, not the whole nation of Iraq," Robertson said. "When faced with the threat of a comparable dictator in our own hemisphere, would it not be wiser to wage war against one person rather than finding ourselves down the road locked in a bitter struggle with a whole nation?"

So far there has been no reaction from Venezuela to Robertson's apology.

Earlier Wednesday, on his "The 700 Club" program, Robertson said the media had taken his remarks out of context.

"I didn't say 'assassination.' I said our special forces should 'take him out.' And 'take him out' can be a number of things, including kidnapping; there are a number of ways to take out a dictator from power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted by the AP [Associated Press], but that happens all the time," Robertson said on "The 700 Club."

All I can say is BUSTED!!!!!

Should anyone be surprised at anything Robertson says....

God's pattern is for men to be the leaders, both in the church and in the family... "Women should listen and learn quietly and submissively. I do not let women teach men or have authority over them." -- Pat Robertson, reciting a passage from I Timothy in his book, Bring It On, quoted from Nicholas D. Kristof, "Peter, Paul, Mary ... and God" (The New York Times: February 28, 2004)

I know this is painful for the ladies to hear, but if you get married, you have accepted the headship of a man, your husband. Christ is the head of the household and the husband is the head of the wife, and that's the way it is, period. -- Pat Robertson, The 700 Club television program, January 8, 1992

We have enough votes to run the country. And when the people say, "We've had enough," we are going to take over. -- Pat Robertson, speech given to the April, 1980 "Washington for Jesus" rally, quoted from Robert Boston, The Most Dangerous Man in America, p. 29

There is no such thing as separation of church and state in the Constitution. It is a lie of the Left and we are not going to take it anymore. -- Pat Robertson, address to his American Center for Law and Justice, November, 1993.

We have a court that has essentially stuck its finger in God's eye and said we're going to legislate you out of the schools. We're going to take your commandments from off the courthouse steps in various states. We're not going to let little children read the commandments of God. We're not going to let the Bible be read, no prayer in our schools. We have insulted God at the highest levels of our government. And then we say, "Why does this happen?" Well, why it's happening is that God Almighty is lifting his protection from us. -- Pat Robertson, explaining on his 700 Club cable TV program why the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, had occurred two days earlier (but oblivious as to why such nations as Sweden and The Netherlands, both many orders more secular than the U.S. could ever hope to be, are spared such tragedies), quoted from Beth Corbin, ed., Americans United Activist Release: "Pat Robertson Prays for Supreme Court Changes" (July 15, 2003)

This is God's power and he sent this thing to warn us ... we needed a shock. -- Pat Robertson, remarking on the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, quoted by Robert E. Norlander in a dispatch of September 14, 2001

I think George Bush is going to win in a walk. I really believe that I'm hearing from the Lord it's going to be like a blowout election of 2004. It's shaping up that way. The Lord has just blessed him.... I mean, he could make terrible mistakes and comes out of it. It doesn't make any difference what he does, good or bad. God picks him up because he's a man of prayer and God's blessing him. -- Pat Robertson, The 700 Club television program, , January 2, 2004

The Constitution of the United States, for instance, is a marvelous document for self-government by the Christian people. But the minute you turn the document into the hands of non-Christian people and atheistic people they can use it to destroy the very foundation of our society. And that's what's been happening. -- Pat Robertson, The 700 Club television program, December 30, 1981

Individual Christians are the only ones really -- and Jewish people, those who trust God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob -- are the only ones that are qualified to have the reign, because hopefully, they will be governed by God and submit to Him. -- Pat Robertson, The 700 Club television program, January 11, 1985, defending his stance that only Christians and Jews are fit to hold public office

When I said during my presidential bid that I would only bring Christians and Jews into the government, I hit a firestorm. "What do you mean?" the media challenged me. "You're not going to bring atheists into the government? How dare you maintain that those who believe in the Judeo-Christian values are better qualified to govern America than Hindus and Muslims?" My simple answer is, "Yes, they are." -- Pat Robertson, The New World Order, p. 218

The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians. -- Pat Robertson, fundraising letter, 1992

But I guess all that was the Liberal's Fault too? My first thought in reading that stuff, was did he get called on it and lie about it too?

Bottom Line... It's All The Liberal's Fault. I am glad to see Michelle was able to arrange for clones to attend her blog while she was out.

Who knew Pat Robertson held a key administration post?

Or, that he had significant foreign policy influence?

In what way is Robertson more than an opinionated, somewhat influential television host? He hasn't claimed to speak on the government's behalf.

So when he calls for a oppressive tyrant's head, what in the world is the fuss about?

Could be a tempest in a teapot, rather than Hurricane Pat's Great Caribbean Uprising.

Why would the Bush Administration feel the need to condemn the remarks? Ignoring them would have been a lot smarter.

The same, normally silent leftists on human rights abuses in Venezuela, Zimbabwe, North Korea and elsewhere, suddenly love Thug-In-Chief Hugo Chavez, simply because Robertson doesn't.

That's now the full extent of lefty discourse. Don't believe me? Take a stroll down Technorati Road. He's currently the most-searched topic, with hundreds of liberal bloggers worked up into a hysterical frenzy.

I'd love to see this level of concern for the well-documented abuses that occur in these countries on a daily basis. If it doesn't provide a way to attack the right, "progressives" don't care.

Would some of Robertson's critics care to see what Human Rights Watch (hardly a conservative outfit) has to say about Chavez's recent abuses?

Is it any wonder what bad shape our country is in right now. I mean God Forbid expose an idiot on the Right. Do so, and you are a traitor, a coward and a supporter of Dictatorships.

I used to wonder what "Reality Based Community," meant... Now I am begining to see it very clearly.

You might be waiting a while Dan...

NY Times: Robertson Is Pilloried for Assassination Call. But other conservative Christian organizations remained silent, with leaders at the Traditional Values Coalition, the Family Research Council and the Christian Coalition saying through spokesmen that they were too busy to comment.

Still waiting for some prominent folks in the right-wing blogosphere to comment, too.

Although I must give props to Jay Tea at Wizbang for having this one right.

Now Pat Robertson is saying he was misquoted. Eh, you need to watch the tapes dude.

What Robertson and people like him dont realize, is that Chavez is popular as hell in Latin America. Making idiotic comments like that will only increase his popularity. Che has been dead for how many years? And yet they are still making movies about him...