UPDATE:  Later today, Pat admitted he called for Chavez’ assassination and apologized.  It took 48 hours to get from A to Z, while taking a few lying diversions in between.  Now watch as the Christian Coalition falls all over itself to praise Pat as a stand-up guy.  And by the way, I find his excuse rather lame.

Let’s look at what Pat Robertson said Monday, verbatim:

"You know, I don’t know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he [Chavez] 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. And I don’t think any oil shipments will stop. But this man is a terrific danger and the United … This is in our sphere of influence, so we can’t let this happen. We have the Monroe Doctrine, we have other doctrines that we have announced. And without question, this is a dangerous enemy to our south, controlling a huge pool of oil, that could hurt us very badly. 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."

Here’s Pat’s excuse lie:

"I didn’t say ‘assassination.’ I said our special forces should ‘take him out.’

Pat, you did say "assassination" AND "assassinate", and you said (immediately right after) that we "oughta go ahead and do it".   (Then, moments later, you mentioned "taking him out".  But you clearly talked about assassination.)  See, there’s this new invention called videotape…

But then Pat make matters even worse:

"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."

Pat doesn’t explain what he actually meant by "take him out", only what he could have meant.  He’s being cagy with us, or he thinks he is.   And of course, even though he admits he was using ambiguous language in part, it’s the AP’s fault for misinterpreting him!

What a wanker.

Upcoming:  While stealing his neighbor’s garden shears, Pat see his neighbor’s wife, and secretly desires her.  So he steals her mail.  On the sabbath.

UPDATE:  I hope Pat isn’t planning on visiting England soon:

Home Secretary Charles Clarke has set out a list of "unacceptable behaviour" which could see extremists deported from Britain.

Fundamentalists who engage in the activities on the list could also be prevented from entering the country.

The types of conduct to be outlawed include inflammatory preaching and publishing views fostering hatred or fomenting terrorism.

The banned list applies to any non-UK citizen, either living in the country or abroad.

Fundamentalist?  Check.  Inflammatory preaching?  Check.  Publishing views fostering hatred?  Check.  Non-UK citizen living abroad?  Check.