Pat Robertson: The Face of the Republican Party Televangelist Pat Robertson, former Republican Presidential candidate, has called for the United States to assassinate Socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The hypocrisy of a Christian minister calling for the murder of another human is plain. To do simply because you disagree with his politics is insanity. Of course, Pat Robertson quickly sounded rational when he spoke of more pressing Republican concerns: "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war ... and I don't think any oil shipments will stop." That's right folks. Venezuela is the fifth largest exporter of oil to the U.S. Couple that with a far left leader strongly critical of Bush and you've got a whole bunch of reasons why Robertson's wish may come true. Pat Robertson is the founder of the Christian Coalition and a huge supporter of President Bush. Last January he said that "I think George Bush is going to win in a walk...I really believe I'm hearing from the Lord it's going to be like a blowout election in 2004. It's shaping up that way." If you have the stomach for it, I highly recommend going right to the source and checking out Pat Robertson's website. The linked part of the site is titled "Operation Supreme Court Freedom". On his site Robertson asks people to "Pray that additional vacancies occur within the Supreme Court." Without saying it outright, Robertson been calling for Americans to pray for a death of a Supreme Court Justice. Meanwhile, Robertson's site also makes a none-too subtle reference that implies the Democratic Party is the party of Satan: "Pray that any plan of the enemy for the Senate confirmation hearing would be thwarted. Take authority over the schemes of Satan concerning the Supreme Court." The Republicans and their corporate cronies are panicking about Chavez's discussion of ending oil exports to the US. Murder based on oil profits is unacceptable. Although conservatives charge that Chavez is starting a Latin American arms race, Chavez poses no threat to us. The reality is that Chavez is quickly spending his country into debt with overzealous social programs that he uses to stay popular. He's a harmless spendthrift who, most importantly, was democratically elected. If a liberal leader called for the assassination of a foreign President, his career would be over. We shall see what happens with Pat Robertson, but I doubt much will come of it.