Yesterday's big news was that Pat Robertson, host of television's hilarious hit The 700 Club and founder of that league of fun-lovers the Christian Coalition, called for the assassination of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. It's unclear whether it's big news because publicly supporting political assassination is further evidence that Robertson is a kook or because, given its prior choices, it entirely possible the administration will take his advice to heart.

But feigned indignation aside, do any of us really think it's that bad an idea? Especially when you couch the suggestion the way Reverend Patty did: "It cheaper than starting a war." And how.

Pat Robertson is a lot of things. For example, he claimed that Chavez's Venezuela was a lauching pad for the spread of communism in this hemisphere. That suggests he's either really out of touch or more optimistic about communism's future than Castro. But he's also been more critical of the Iraq War than many of his goose-stepping brethren on the far right. So rather than seeing his comments as merely insane, I choose to imagine that they're a canny criticism of the war -- pointing out to us all that there are tyrants as dangerous as Saddam much closer to home, and next time we decide to take things into our own hands, perhaps we shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater. After all, is assassinating one guy really so disgusting when the alternative is razing an entire country?

Analogcabin @ 8:06 AM
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