2008 Prime Cuts
Pat Robertson endorses Rudy Giuliani. What a meeting of the weasels. A lot of coverage of this points out that Robertson says that American gays and liberals caused the 9/11 attack, which goes against Giuliani’s message of “Terra Terra Terra! Muslims! Only I can protect you! Even though I didn’t before! Look over there! Brown people!” Missing from this coverage is what a dangerous, amoral, corrupt man Robertson is.
From Wikipedia:
Robertson repeatedly supported former President of Liberia Charles Taylor in various episodes of his 700 Club program during the United States’ involvement in the Liberian Civil War in June and July of 2003. Robertson accuses the U.S. State Department of giving President Bush bad advice in supporting Taylor’s ouster as president, and of trying “as hard as they can to destabilize Liberia.”
Robertson was criticized for failing to mention in his broadcasts his $8,000,000 (USD) investment in a Liberian gold mine. Taylor had been indicted by the United Nations for war crimes at the time of Robertson’s support.
and:
Robertson has also been accused of using his tax-exempt, nonprofit organization, Operation Blessing, as a front for his own financial gain, and then using his influence in the Republican Party to cover his tracks. After making emotional pleas in 1994 on The 700 Club for cash donations to Operation Blessing to support airlifts of refugees from Rwanda to Zaire, it was later discovered, by a reporter from The Virginian-Pilot, that Operation Blessing’s planes were transporting diamond-mining equipment for the Robertson-owned African Development Corporation, a venture Robertson had established in cooperation with Zaire’s dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, whom Robertson had befriended earlier in 1993. According to Operation Blessing documents, Robertson personally owned the planes used for Operation Blessing airlifts….
An investigation by the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Office of Consumer Affairs determined that Robertson “willfully induced contributions from the public through the use of misleading statements and other implications” and called for a criminal prosecution against Robertson in 1999. However, Virginia Attorney General Mark Earley, a Republican whose largest campaign contributor two years earlier was Robertson himself, intervened, accepting that Robertson had made deceptive appeals but overruling the recommendation for his prosecution. No charges were ever brought against Robertson. “Two years earlier, while Virginia’s investigation was gathering steam, Robertson donated $35,000 to Earley’s campaign — Earley’s largest contribution.”
So Robertson went from supporting Charles Taylor to Mobutu Sese Seko to Rudy Giuliani. Hey, color me impressed by that endorsement.
But Giuliani is a Republican. That whole field is filled with crazy, amoral losers. The best there is Huckabee, who is a Dominionist. How’s the Democratic field then?
Well, I had high-hopes for Barack Obama, who, like Kerry and Gore before him, is showing us how not to run a campaign. Social Security crisis? Mining rights? Really? This is the best you’ve got, Obama? Hillary Clinton has all the baggage of a Clinton, and she’s a supporter of the status-quo in Iraq, a saber-rattler for Iran, and friend to the corporation. She would be immeasurably better at running the country than Bush, but it’s still a Hobson’s choice, Clinton or no-one. I’m hoping that Dodd or Edwards gets some momentum, but it is unlikely. My sincerest hope is that Clinton doesn’t pick someone like Joe Lieberman as her running-mate. 2008 looks like a fun year of bad choices.
Posted by Jonathan at 03:15 PM, 09 November 2007
