(Up)standing Pat

Pat Robertson has been bonkers since the Taft administration, but unlike other members of the Religious Reich (e.g., James Dobson, Jerry Falwell) -- who maintain a more or less steady but low-grade public presence -- Robertson is a binge idiot, interspersing islands of relative quiescence with bursts of raucous verbal flatulence suggesting he either has some of the worst judgment in history or is truly insane (not that these are mutually exclusive qualities, but I digress).

A couple of months ago, Robertson famously shat all over New Orleans, opinining that if abortion were not legal, Hurricane Katrina would have avoided savaging the Big Easy. (Robertson, of course, was far from alone in serving up this and similar solecisms.) On the heels of that, in a move so misguided it appeared parodic even by the standards of the source, he called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Chavez. Soon afterward, realizing for once that he had stuck his foot so far into his mouth that his anus appeared to have sprouted toes, he backpedaled, but by then it was too late, and besides, it's not as though anyone was really surprised. (For an amusing litany of all known Robertson faux pas, go here).

Now, with all eight school board members supporting ID having been voted off the backwater island that is Dover, Pennsylvania, Robertson noted that God was likely to forsake the town, what with turnabout being fair play and all. At least he didn't recommend offing anyone. (Be sure to watch the 700 Club clip.)

Dispatches from the Culture Wars has a brief but amusing post on this, and also goes into some detail about the general situation in Dover. The blog's owner and operator, Ed Brayton, is a fine wordsmith who has also written extensively about the ACLU's penchant for defending freedom of religious expression, not that the facts are bound to sway the energetically uneducable troglodytes zealots at StoptheACLU.com.