The whole thing is ludicrous, when you think about it. I almost choked to see it laid out baldly in headline form in the NYT:

Robertson Suggests US Kill Venezuela's Leader

I couldn't help but giggle. I mean, it's so ridiculous on so many levels. I particularly liked this wonderfully understated version:

With call for assassination, Robertson again raises eyebrows [San Jose Mercury News]

But through no fault of its own, the Washington Post just doesn't hit the funny bone the same way:

U.S. Dodges Robertson Comments on Chavez [WaPo]

Wait. Dodges? Not something maybe a bit stronger like "condemns" or "denounces" or "apologizes for Pat Robertson and all of his evil fatwa-issuing ilk?" Unfortunately WaPo didn't have much to work with as apparently the White House isn't too concerned; I guess a call by a high-profile campaign supporter to assassinate a foreign leader isn't quite as compelling for vacation-stopping as a right-to-die issue in Florida. (Don't feel bad, Hugo Chavez, the tsunami wasn't, either.)

Anyhow, according to WaPo, "State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called Robertson's remarks about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez "inappropriate," but stopped short of condemning them," and apparently Donald Rumsfeld
"said the Pentagon isn't in the business of killing foreign leaders, but he also did not denounce Robertson or his remarks." Quoth Rumsfeld: "He's a private citizen. Private citizens say all kinds of things all the time" (It's true, I remember when Ari Fleischer said exactly the same thing).

True to form, "Pat Robertson" is the number-one search on Technorati (and number 9 with the simple yet effective "Robertson"), knocking the fake deaths of "Six Feet Under" out of the top spot but drawing my attention to the number 7 search for "Utah Rave," which would probably remind Michiko Kakutani of that night she danced for a really, really, really long time and just loved everyone, so much.