Badpuppy Gay Today |
Friday, 06 February 1998 |
Wednesday's 700 Club featured a memorable Pat Robertson tirade that suggests just how low he's willing to stoop. The target of his remarks was the husband of the woman Karla Faye Tucker murdered. Tucker was executed Tuesday evening in Texas, 14 years after she killed the woman and her lover in bed with a pickaxe. Robertson is a supporter of capital punishment, but had rallied to Tucker's defense on grounds that she had been born again after committing after her crime. Wednesday's 700 Club, Robertson's daily television program, included a "news" account of the execution, followed by commentary from Robertson, who managed in the course of a few lines to shift blame for the murder from the murderer to the victim's husband, and to repeat on national television what he himself described as unconfirmed rumors about the husband's relationship with his wife. The husband had advocated for Tucker's execution, earning Robertson's wrath. Robertson's entire quote follows: Pat Robertson: "I want to comment about this Mr. Thornton. I faced him in the Larry King Live show on CNN. He has become a public figure condemning Karla [Faye Tucker] Brown. "But I want to ask Mr. Thornton, publicly on this national television program, number one, sir, why was your wife in bed with another man in a motel room in Texas on the night of the killing. "And number two, rumors have come to us--these are unconfirmed but have some validity--that you were not only estranged from her, you, quote, threw her out of the house and when she called back and talked to her son and said 'I want to come home,' you refused to let her do it. "Now before you condemn Karla Faye anymore on national television, I think you owe the American people a full disclosure of your activity on the day of your wife's killing. "And could it be possible, that if you had not been so unyielding and harsh toward her that day, your wife would not have been in harm's way and would not have been murdered? "And are you really angry at Karla Faye Tucker, or are you angry at yourself? Now these are questions I think the American people need to ask of Mr. Thornton, who's become so public in his denunciation of Karla Faye Tucker." Robertson's embrace of Tucker stands in sharp contrast to his previously expressed views on the death penalty. By way of contrast, in 1994 Robertson worked to defeat the nomination of Rosemary Barkett, a Clinton nominee to the federal bench, on grounds that in her previous judging experience, she had not applied the death penalty frequently enough to suit Robertson's tastes. Said Robertson: "The Bible is very clear about this, that when blood is shed, blood cleanses the land..." He went on to assert that permitting a convicted murderer to live in prison at society's expense was "unbiblical." The People For the American Way Foundation is a national non-profit organization dedicated to defending civil rights; promoting the democratic values of religious freedom and respect for diversity; and developing a culture of opportunity and tolerance of individual difference. Visit the PFAW web site: http://pfaw.org The archives for this organization's Right Wing Watch Online are kept at: http://pfaw.org/rww |
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