Sen. Lautenberg blasts Pat Robertson, calls on Frist to condemn remarks

RAW STORY - Just published

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) has called on GOP Senate leader Bill Frist (R-TN) to condemn remarks by evangelical Rev. Pat Robertson, in which he said judges are a bigger threat than terrorists RAW STORY has learned.

Robertson was a guest on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos on Sunday. Asked asked if judges were a more serious threat than terrorists, Robertson responded, “It depends on how you look at culture. If they look over the course of 100 years, I think the gradual erosion of the consensus that's held our country together is probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings. And I think we have controlled Al Qaida. I think we'll get Osama bin Laden. We've won in Afghanistan. We won in Iraq. And we can contain that. But if there's an erosion at home, you know, Thomas Jefferson warned about a tyranny of oligarchy. If we surrender our democracy to the tyranny of oligarchy, we've made a terrible mistake.”

In the letter, Lautenberg says he was shocked at Robertson's remarks.

“It was shocking to hear your cavalier dismissal of the atrocious 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon by describing them as “a few bearded terrorists who fly planes into buildings,” wrote Lautenberg in his letter to Reverend Robertson. Lautenberg went on to write, “To suggest that members of the federal judiciary are somehow in the same class as “a few bearded terrorists” is an assault on the men and women on the federal bench who safeguard our rights under the Constitution everyday.”

In a separate letter to Sen. Majority Leader Frist, Lautenberg asks Frist to condemn Robertson's comments.

“I hope you will join me in condemning such harmful and heated language and call on Reverend Robertson to publicly apologize to every family who has lost a loved one to terrorism. Your silence on this matter would send a resounding signal to the entire country that the radical right controls the leadership of the Republican Party,” Lautenberg wrote in his letter to Majority Leader Frist.

The letter to Robertson, and the following letter to Frist, are included below. RAW STORY has also posted images of the letters .

http://rawstory.com/exclusives/lautenberg_judges_robertson_frist_503.htm

It's become a shambles of what it is supposed to be.

The current hatred and arrogance from the right far surpasses anything I've experienced during my lifetime (in terms of politics).

It's a disgrace! In all my years, I've voted at times for Republicans. But I gotta tell ya... never, ever again. They're obstinance, arrogance, and total lack of compassion for most of us, "we the American people," will never leave me at a voting poll again.

The list is too long. Everyone knows them. Their actions are unforgiveable!

When they have total power they're out of control. This time is proving it. Those remarks by Robertson were so disgusting and wrong. If I had a family member die in 9/11 I'd be so pissed at him.

We need more senators doing this, what robertson said was absolutely reckless and just plain dangerous.

The last thing we need is people thinking or even equating our justice's with deadly terrorists!

He might as well have put out at hit on them!! That lunatic!!

Robertston should also be held responsible if any judge is harmed in the future. Because he knows that many nutcases listen to him and will do anything he says, he also carries the responsibility of enciting them to criminal actions.

He is no more reponsible for the lives of these judges than any other raving lunatic. Or rather, he can't be held responsible. Being a moron is legal.

It's the people who put him on display that need to take some responsibility.

--IMM

"tyranny of oligarchy?" that's what the pukes are doing now not those questing for equality and justice.

edit: spelling

Pat, Bush is the Oligarcy you mentioned. Not the Judges....

I looked up his biography which is where I got the quote at the bottom of my posts. Why these repukes use Jefferson is beyond me. He was an educated man, not prone to blind faith which is what the likes of Roberton rely on. Robertson is a a/hole.

Lautenberg is great and I'm really glad that he decided to come backl!

"We've won in Afghanistan. We won in Iraq." :rofl:

of the majority, our current problem, not oligarchy.
edit for spelling, dammit.

To protect against tyranny of the majority.

Put Frist on the hot seat with Robertson for those stupid comments. Robertson said what he did on a nationally televised network program, and Frist appeared at the Justice Sunday Nazi rally. Force Frist either to agree with or condemn Robertson -- just like every Democrat was forced to either agree with or condemn Michael Moore and every frame of Fahrenheit 911.

Lautenberg has turned one of the favorite Republican tactics against them. Good job, Senator!

Lautenberg is one of the few in the Senate who actually has some balls. I guess it comes of being old and wealthy.

interviewed when he first was running and I was so impressed(he had just gone skiing)!

First you New Jerseyians had the bad news about the torch and then you had the great news about Senator Frank Lautenberg..

Who's going to be the next Gov?

I'm not sure who will win his vacant seat, but don't worry the statewide Republican party in NJ is in shambles. NJ will have 2 Dems representing in the senate

I had forgotten about Jon Corzine running. Hope we get rid of pataki here in New York. New Yorkers deserve much better!

Bush came to Westfield for his first stop on the "Social Security BS Barnstorming" tour.

Evidently, some group has hired the same ad company that did the Swift Boat ads to do anti-Corzine ads.

With few races in '05, they are gonna be ALL OVER NJ with national attention.

And, scariest to me, next election I won't be voting on my beloved lever machines that I've been voting on for 20 years. We get the electronic ones and, last I heard, they may not be with any VOTER VERIFIED PAPER BALLOTS.

No time for complacency in NJ. I'm going to be doing all I can to make sure NJ stays blue.

he can say these things because he has job security. If he choses to run again (and I hope he does) he will win. I'm proud to call him *my* senator. Now if only we could clone about 50 more Lautenbergs we would be in a much better place

The organizers of "Injustice Sunday" had ties to David Duke, the KKK and KKK-lite, the Committee of Concerned Citizens.

Can you post some links? I'd be interested in seeing the info.

I don't call these a**holes the 'Christian White" for nothing.

that ties together Frist, Robertson, Just Us Sunday, The KKK, and the Nuclear option.

Take it to the floor of the Senate!

he needs to shut the hell up! :spank:

Stop keeping the man a microphone.

That's what I'm wondering. Unfreakin believable.

because he'll keep saying assinine things. Then we need to keep putting the heat on Frist, DeLay, Bush, and the whole bunch of them to denounce those assinine things. It works for the right.....

for their life style and that he why GOD brought down the Trade Centers?

and Robertson had to back away from it. But he didn't back to far it seems.

damn devil lib'rul media!

with what Robertson said? It reflects the deeply held belief and commitment of most republicans. And those republicans who disagree with Robertson are his most important and vital supporters.

People who disagree with the extremist religious right but vote republican anyway are the reason Robertson and his ilk have any national political power. I always make this point to any republicans who claim not to support Pat Robertson and his ilk.

i like it!

the Senate "cat-killer."

And why are they asking him anyway?

However, maybe it is just better to let him run his mouth so he ends up looking like an idiot.

He needs that lowlife grifter's support

:boring:

Somebody wake me when it happens.

Of mouth-breathing, theocracy-wanting whack jobs.

rhetoric with more political stupidity and traitour rhetoric. Dig yourself deeper, Robertson. Keep yourself in front of the camera. Get on all the shows and show your stuff. You've been too guiet...good show this past Sunday.

He is absolutely incredibly dangerously stupid and downright evil!!!

2005: He blames "a few bearded terrorists who fly planes into buildings".

2001: He and Jerry Falwell blame pagans, abortionists, queers, PFAW, and the ACLU.

Transcript from 9/13/01 on The 700 Club here:

"You Helped This Happen"

Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson react to the September 11 terrorist attacks on American soil.

(Partial transcript of comments from the Thursday, September 13, 2001 edition of the '700 Club.')

JERRY FALWELL: And I agree totally with you that the Lord has protected us so wonderfully these 225 years. And since 1812, this is the first time that we've been attacked on our soil and by far the worst results. And I fear, as Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense, said yesterday, that this is only the beginning. And with biological warfare available to these monsters - the Husseins, the Bin Ladens, the Arafats--what we saw on Tuesday, as terrible as it is, could be miniscule if, in fact--if, in fact--God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve.

PAT ROBERTSON: Jerry, that's my feeling. I think we've just seen the antechamber to terror. We haven't even begun to see what they can do to the major population.

JERRY FALWELL: The ACLU's got to take a lot of blame for this.

PAT ROBERTSON: Well, yes.

JERRY FALWELL: And, I know that I'll hear from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way--all of them who have tried to secularize America--I point the finger in their face and say "you helped this happen."

PAT ROBERTSON: Well, I totally concur, and the problem is we have adopted that agenda at the highest levels of our government. And so we're responsible as a free society for what the top people do. And, the top people, of course, is the court system.

JERRY FALWELL: Pat, did you notice yesterday the ACLU, and all the Christ-haters, People For the American Way, NOW, etc. were totally disregarded by the Democrats and the Republicans in both houses of Congress as they went out on the steps and called out on to God in prayer and sang "God Bless America" and said "let the ACLU be hanged"? In other words, when the nation is on its knees, the only normal and natural and spiritual thing to do is what we ought to be doing all the time--calling upon God.

How does he sit there and invoke Jefferson's name to further his agenda, when Jefferson established the very principal that Robertson is against.

Pat Robertson's fundie college Regent University has a film festival every year, and they are showing it at the Naro Theater in Norfolk (yeah, I live and work in CBN/Robertson territory). I was on my dinner break, coming back from Subway, when this black Lincoln stopped in front of the theater and two goons stop traffic in front of me to let the honorable Dr. Pat Robertson out to go inside. My instinct was to give him the finger...and instinct prevailed.

Damned if he didn't see it though :-(

:kick:

...we need about 50 more Senators just like him....He has consistenty stayed on the case of the rethuglicans, and has the tenacity of a bulldog with a severe case of lock-jaw...

Good going Senator!!

...from 1993, when a religious extremist made remarks of a similar degree of vileness, and to a far smaller audience. Certainly Mr. Robertson (who is on record as "blaming Americans first" for the attacks of 9/11) and his remarks, in this time of war against terrorism, to a far larger audience, rate a similar or even more severe demonstration of outrage on the Senate's part...


http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=103&session=2&vote=00019

U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 103rd Congress - 2nd Session
as compiled through Senate LIS by the Senate Bill Clerk under the direction of the Secretary of the Senate


Vote Summary

Question: On the Amendment (Danforth Amdt. No. 1368 )
Vote Number: 19 Vote Date: February 2, 1994, 05:32 PM
Required For Majority: 1/2 Vote Result: Amendment Agreed to
Amendment Number: S.Amdt. 1368 to S. 1150 (National Skill Standards Act of 1993 )
Statement of Purpose: To express the sense of the Senate that the speech made by Mr. Khalid Abdul Mohammed at Kean College on November 29, 1993 was false, anti-Semitic, racist, divisive, repugnant and a disservice to all Americans and is therefore condemned.
Vote Counts: YEAs 97
NAYs 0
Not Voting 3

and judges are worse than terrorists we know our duty. Lock and Load....
Isn't there a law against inciting violence against anyone but especially government officials?

http://www.dscc.org/robertson

That's what the headline should read.

Pat Robertson's comments should be condemned by the White House immediately. Where's the media on this?

camping outside the "runaway bride's" home, waiting to see if she comes out and sees her shadow. If she does see her shadow, there will be 6 more weeks of coverage. If she doesn't, that means a new, more mind numbingly idiotic story is just around the corner.
So goes the busy, hectic life TV and Newspaper Journalists!

They are dangerous in policy and bring the wrath of God upon us in the form of terrorist attacks!

Thank the lord for people like Robertson.

seriously

I love how Robertson thinks Thomas Jefferson would be some ally of his if he were alive.

From http://members.tripod.com/~candst/tnppage/qjeffson.htm :

Skepticism toward religious authority:

* The clergy, by getting themselves established by law and ingrafted into the machine of government, have been a very formidable engine against the civil and religious rights of man (Letter to J. Moor, 1800).
* The clergy...believe that any portion of power confided to me will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly: for I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. But this is all they have to fear from me: and enough, too, in their opinion (Letter to Benjamin Rush, 1800).
* History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes (Letter to von Humboldt, 1813).
* In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own (Letter to H. Spafford, 1814).