Robertson Bobs and Weaves

Given the surprising level of response to his comment's on Monday that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez should be assassinated, Pat Robertson made two attempts today to repair the damage.

First, he initially denied saying Chavez should be assassinated by saying:

Wait a minute, I didn't say 'assassination.' I said our special forces should, quote, "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, but that happens all the time.

Except he wasn't "misinterpreted". Here's what Robertson originally said:

You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. ...We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with.

Seems pretty clear to me.

Then, when that didn't work because, you know, people have VCR's and computers with internet access and check things like that, according to Media Matters:

On the afternoon of August 24, Robertson issued a press release in which he claimed that his assassination comments were "adlibbed" out of frustration, suggesting they were not representative of his true thinking.

Read the whole Press Release here, in which Robertson amazingly tries to wrap himself in the mantle of German martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer!

Put a fork in him, he's done. But then again, maybe not. If you follow the link to Robertson's site, you'll find links to "Pat's Age-Defying Antioxidants", "Pat Robertson's Age-Defying Shake", and "Pat's Age-Defying Protein Pancakes". And I swear, or rather, I affirm, since I'm a Quaker, that I am not making this up!