Someone in this administration must come out and condemn the words of Pat Robertson, very loudly. If we don't it is, by silence, at least a distant option. About a year ago or so General Boykin, in uniform, gave a speech where he said -- referring to the Muslim religion -- that our God (Christian) is better than their God (Muslim). That statement pretty much fell by the wayside with no denouncing from the administration.
So, when Pat Robertson who was a candidate for the Presidency comes out for the assassination of a democratically elected President (Hugo Chavez) with a 70% approval rating in his country you can't just ignore it. Bush probably won't condemn Robertson's statements lest he anger his base and lose more of his approval rating. He's kind of caught between Iraq and a hard place. But this sends a wrong signal to the rest of the world. First, it appears that we would consider taking out leaders that we don't agree with. Second, it sends the message to other countries that this is a democratic way of doing business.
The only response that I've found so far is from Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld when asked about Robertson's comments, "Our department doesn't do that type of thing. It's against the law. He's a private citizen. Private citizens say all kinds of things all the time." To me that's a pretty light-weight response. Apparently the Christian-right has taken the ten commandments down a notch to nine.
Venezuela's Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said the U.S. response to Robertson would be a test of its anti-terrorist policy and that Venezuela was studying its legal options.
Sometimes it's what you don't say that gets you into trouble.
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