Posted on 10/13/2003 6:50:35 PM PDT by Brian S
WASHINGTON (AFP) Oct 13, 2003
Just days after being harshly criticized for on-air comments suggesting the US State Department be obliterated with nuclear weapons, prominent conservative televangelist Pat Robertson renewed his attack on
Monday, calling for the agency to be "gutted." An apparently unrepentant Robertson did not retract his earlier comments -- although he allowed they had been "rather graphic" -- and maintained they had been intended to be lighthearted.
The one-time Republican presidential hopeful also said he had mistakenly attributed the sentiment to columnist Joel Mowbray, author of a scathing critique of the State Department.
"I was trying to characterize the rather negative tone in your book in a laughing fashion," Robertson said in an interview with Mowbray to be broadcast later Monday on his nationally televised "700 Club" program.
"I mentioned the question of nuking the State Department," he said, according to a transcript of the interview posted on Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network website (www.cbn.com).
"Mr Mowbray did not use the term 'nuke', he said it should be gutted and I think we ought to make that clear ... Joel did not say 'Nuke the State Department,' so we've changed: We're not going to nuke it, we're going to gut it," Robertson said.
Later, using the word "eviscerated," he said he would like to see "a top to bottom overhaul (of the State Department) with a major portion of the current personnel gone and somebody else taking their place."
Robertson's initial remarks -- also made in an interview with Mowbray, author of "Dangerous Diplomacy: How the State Department Threatens American Security" -- drew vehement protests from the State Department.
Spokesman Richard Boucher called the remarks "despicable" and a senior department official said a protest had been made "at the highest level."
"I lack sufficient capabilities to express my disdain," Boucher told reporters on Thursday. "I think the very idea, though, is despicable."
During the course of the earlier broadcast, Robertson had said that after finishing Mowbray's book he had thought to himself: "If I could just get a nuclear device inside Foggy Bottom, I think that's the answer."
"I mean, you get through this, and you say, 'We've got to blow that thing up'," Robertson said.
Foggy Bottom is the Washington neighborhood where the State Department's headquarters is located.
Mowbray's book accuses the State Department of endangering the security of the United States by allegedly cavorting with sponsors of terrorism, negligence or incompetence in the visa issuance process and ignoring the travails of US citizens abroad.
The State Department has denied Mowbray's allegations on numerous occasions.
One more time: I agree it's not funny. It's just not that serious, either. I'm going to drop this one now. I'm very sorry you're so unhappy.
To a certain extent, I'd be less PO'd if Alec Baldwin had said this about the Pentagon, because I expect garbage like that from liberals.
The problem with being "conservative" is that you're stuck upholding a standard, even when you have to enforce it against folks on your side.
Same here.
I just expect more out of Pat Robertson than I do out of Sean Penn, Alec Baldwin, or any of the other Hollyweird freaks.
All the folks who donate to CBN...
This stopped being "humor" on 9/11/01. Sorry. I'm all out.
I almost forgot and assumed you were a Liberal because you were so solicitous of Foggy Bottom's Marxists.
Gosh, I just thought you were a Liberal at heart, because "humor" like this is the sort of stuff that I expect out of Alec Baldwin or Michael Moore.
And, for what it is worth, most all of Foggy Bottom is built of stone which is notoriously hard to burn.
But much of the interior will burn very nicely, witness the Pentagon and World Trade Center.
Like I said: some things just stopped being funny on 9/11/01. Maybe my friend and colleagues in the Navy Command Center thought it was funny while they were getting char-broiled in a stone building, but I doubt it.
No one mentioned in this thread is literal in their wishes about Foggy Bottom, neither a nuke in DC, not believing in the combustability of stone.
Sorry, some things passed out of the realm of good taste and humor a couple of years ago. Pat's already had his case of diarrhea of the mouth on 9/11, and he hasn't learned squat from the experience.
Sorry, some speech IS unacceptable. Remember when we got outraged by Alec Baldwin's call for Henry Hyde to be stoned to death? Remember that?
It was all a "joke," he told us.
Sorry, we didn't accept that crap then. I'm not accepting it now. I expect better out of Pat Robertson than you seem to. That just shows that you're guilty of low standards.
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