Pat Robertson had to know that his comments would stir up a hornet's nest...The government said that Pat's remarks were "not their policy"..but we would all hope that the govt is, well, hell,....how would you put it?.... lying?, and they have Chavez in the crosshairs.
Some tweedledee on a radio show (O'Reilly I believe) tried to say that Karl Rove made a secret call to Pat Robertson and had him drop the statement in his show as part of a nefarious scheme. O'Reilly basically told the guy to join reality some day, and that he (the caller) was an extremist.