A mostly Pat hand

IF THERE WERE an award for providing newspapers with the most productive editorial fodder of the year, televangelist Pat Robertson surely would be near the top of the list.

The New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today all agree today that Robertson handed Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez propaganda fodder when the preacher called for Chavez’s assassination. After pressing the Bush administration to condemn Robertson’s comments, the Times calls him a “garden-variety crackpot with friends in high places.”

The Post goes through the Robertson Hall of Fame of outlandish remarks, including his prediction that God would bring down a hurricane on Orlando if gay pride celebrations at Disneyworld were allowed to go forward.

USA Today, meanwhile, poses a more fundamental question for Robertson: “What part of ‘Thou shalt not kill’ is it that he fails to grasp?”

Elsewhere, the Wall Street Journal today writes that the government would never close military bases were such decisions in the hands of Congress instead of an independent commission. The Journal points to lawmakers who have blocked appointments to the commission for fear that they would vote to shutter bases in senators’ respective home states.

Finally, the Washington Times stretches an analogy to condemn the NCAA for forbidding certain Indian mascots at championship events: “We hope the NCAA can resolve these issues before its headquarters are moved from Indianapolis, which was, of course, named to honor the people who first lived in (dare we say it?) Indiana.”

Paul Thornton