Law-biding Virginians want to know: when is Jerry Kilgore. Republican candidate for Governor, formerly Attorney General of Virginia, and a known lawyer, going to denounce his major supporter, Reverend Pat Robertson, for his criminal remarks on the "700 Club" broadcast calling for the assassination of Mr. Chavez, President of the sovereign nation of Venezuela?Criminal?
Yes, indeed. No less than former Nixon Counsel John Dean has said so, citing exactly which criminal stautes Pat Robertson likely broke by publicly advocating the kidnapping or asassination of Mr. Chavez. In case Mr. Kilgore's lawyerly mind has suffered a convenient memory loss,
they are as follows:
TITLE 18 of the United States Code, Sec. 112(b) (abbreviated):
Whoever willfully threatens a foreign official or attempts to threaten a foreign official shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.
Also, there is:
TITLE of the United States Code, Sec . 875 (c) (abbreviated):
Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication [like the 700 Club broadcast?] containing any threat to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of another, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
Pretty clear, isn't it? If it's not to Jerry Kilgore, let's jog his memory a bit. Does he remember when George W. Bush, asked at the start of the Iraq invasion why he was going after Saddam Hussein, replied, "Remember, the man tried to kill my father?" Yep, and look what happened to Saddam! So what about Pat Robertson now? Is there a bit of a double standard here? Well, it seems to me we have a clear case of a U.S. citizen (Pat Robertson) breaking U.S. law right here in Virginia -- and any attorney (let alone Attorney General) worth his salt would know that. At the minimum, should Jerry Kilgore be accepting money from a person who is advocating a criminal act? Isn't Jerry Kilgore the one who's so big on "law and order?"
Anyway, if you believe that Jerry Kilgore should denounce Pat Robertson and return his money, I urge you to contact his campaign, write your local newspaper, or call the Virginia Attorney General's office. Let them all know how the law abiding citizens of Virginia feel about this matter. To paraphrase an infamous right-wing radio host talking about illegal immigrants and the Herndon day laborer center, how about we all "melt their phone lines!"