Why Has Pat Robertson Turned His Christian Compassion to Chavez?
Aug 27th, 2005 at 8:10 am by Susie
Billmon has a very, very interesting analysis of Pat Robertson’s recent proposal that Hugi Chavez be assassinated:
In other words, I don’t think we should entirely dismiss Pat’s fatwa as simply a hysterical rant by a man who sees the Anti-Christ around every corner. I think Robertson went after Chavez for a more pragmatic reason. The only question is what angle he’s playing here — business or politics.
If Chavez really was a brutal, bloodthirsty tyrant, you’d expect Robertson would be supporting him — given his track record of backing such dregs of humanity as Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire (now back to being the Congo again) and Charles Taylor of Liberia. Considering how enormously useful Pat’s death threat will be to Chavez politically, it doesn’t seem completely nutty to wonder whether the same might be true here. Maybe the Reverend is long oil futures, or has his eye on some Venezuelan mining concessions he can disguise as a charitable relief operation.
But, since Chavez is not a dictator (although he does like to pal around with one) it’s more likely that Robertson is short the Bolivarian Revolution, and is getting tired of sitting on a position that isn’t even close to being in the money — and might not be any time soon.
I strongly suggest you read the whole thing.
Pat does own Powerine, a shuttered refinery near here in Santa Fe Springs, CA. Maybe he wants oil to stay high enough that he can finally sell the refinery at a profit rather than invest the money to modernize it and bring it up to current code.