# Pat Robertson claims federal judges are greater threat than al Qaeda/Nazi Germany **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 3, 2005, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-claims-federal-judges-are-greater-threat-than-al-qaeda-nazi-germany/302171 "2005-05-03T03:02:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-claims-federal-judges-are-greater-threat-than-al-qaeda-nazi-germany/302171/1 "2005-05-03T03:02:08Z")
> **[Breaking News, World News, US and Local News - NY Daily News - New York Daily...](https://www.nydailynews.com/)** > > Find breaking US news, local New York news coverage, sports, entertainment news, celebrity gossip, autos, videos and photos at nydailynews.com. > [@](#): > > Federal judges are a more serious threat to America than Al Qaeda and the Sept. 11 terrorists, the Rev. Pat Robertson claimed yesterday. > > “Over 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,” Robertson said on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.” > > “I think we have controlled Al Qaeda,” the 700 Club host said, but warned of “erosion at home” and said judges were creating a “tyranny of oligarchy.” > > Confronted by Stephanopoulos on his claims that an out-of-control liberal judiciary is the worst threat America has faced in 400 years - worse than Nazi Germany, Japan and the Civil War - Robertson didn’t back down. > > “Yes, I really believe that,” he said. “I think they are destroying the fabric that holds our nation together.” Why is Pat Robertson still put on television and interviewed as though he has any sort of serious mind or opinion? Why isn’t he mocked as a nutbag by the mainstream media? What the fuck, man? ---
**Author:** ![Good\_Egg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/96bed5/32.png) [@Good\_Egg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Good_Egg)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-claims-federal-judges-are-greater-threat-than-al-qaeda-nazi-germany/302171/2 "2005-05-03T03:03:30Z")
Do any federal judges have beards? ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-claims-federal-judges-are-greater-threat-than-al-qaeda-nazi-germany/302171/3 "2005-05-03T03:05:36Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > [http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/305721p-261517c.html](http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/305721p-261517c.html) > Why is Pat Robertson still put on television and interviewed as though he has any sort of serious mind or opinion? Why isn’t he mocked as a nutbag by the mainstream media? What the fuck, man? If he said that in an interview, and it was broadcast… then he IS being mocked as a nutbag by the mainstream media. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-claims-federal-judges-are-greater-threat-than-al-qaeda-nazi-germany/302171/4 "2005-05-03T03:07:18Z")
Funny, I’ve always thought Pat Robertson was destroying the fabric that hold this nation together. Shows what I know. ---
**Author:** ![Plan\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Plan\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plan_B)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-claims-federal-judges-are-greater-threat-than-al-qaeda-nazi-germany/302171/5 "2005-05-03T03:13:19Z")
For the record, as a libertarian Republican, I want to say that Pat Robertson is a jerk and his recent comments were idiotic and contemptuous. And if you look around the conservative boards tonight, you’ll find others saying the same thing. He ain’t one of us. ---
**Author:** ![galen\_ubal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galen_ubal/32/4440_2.png) [@galen\_ubal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen_ubal)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-claims-federal-judges-are-greater-threat-than-al-qaeda-nazi-germany/302171/6 "2005-05-03T03:16:37Z")
Serious question here - I realize that “activist judges” are a favored target of the fringe of the Right, but can anyone give me an example of rulings by such judges that aren’t self-evidently reasonable? I’m thinking of national level here, by the way. {Of course, I’m presuming that abortion is reasonable - which is, I’ll admit, an arguable position.} Other than that, I’m damned if I can think of any that weren’t a triumph for individual rights over a majority that was simply wrong (‘seperate but equal’, anyone?). Can anyone cite me a decision that falls into the Looney Left category? ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-claims-federal-judges-are-greater-threat-than-al-qaeda-nazi-germany/302171/7 "2005-05-03T03:19:42Z")
Although I can’t find a link right now, Pat Robertson also said that no Muslims should be ever appointed to the federal bench because they all believe in jihad. Good idea. The founding fathers were very clear on requiring a religious test for holders of public offices. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-claims-federal-judges-are-greater-threat-than-al-qaeda-nazi-germany/302171/8 "2005-05-03T03:30:02Z")
> [@Plan B](#): > > For the record, as a libertarian Republican, I want to say that Pat Robertson is a jerk and his recent comments were idiotic and contemptuous. And if you look around the conservative boards tonight, you’ll find others saying the same thing. He ain’t one of us. I know that and that’s why I didn’t try to generalize Robertson’s remarks as being representative of anybody but himself. I guess what I was getting as is why Roberston is still given any credibility as a commentator. At one point, at the height of his power eith the Christian Coalition, Robertson was seen as the leader of a substantial political movement as was even a semi-serious candidate for president in the '88 election. Now, even conservative Christian Republicans think he’s a dingbat yet he’s still given national platforms on network television as if he has any sort of gravitas or serious following or political importance. I can’t figure out why’s he’s given valuable airtime or taken any more seriously than any other wingnut off the street. ---
**Author:** ![minty\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-claims-federal-judges-are-greater-threat-than-al-qaeda-nazi-germany/302171/9 "2005-05-03T03:30:18Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > If he said that in an interview, and it was broadcast… then he IS being mocked as a nutbag by the mainstream media. Boadcasting =! mocking. ---
**Author:** ![Andros\_X](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@Andros\_X](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andros_X)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-claims-federal-judges-are-greater-threat-than-al-qaeda-nazi-germany/302171/10 "2005-05-03T03:35:16Z")
TV producers put Pat Robertson on the air because he’s inflammatory; he makes for good TV. Which is why when he does something like invoke Godwin’s Law, the media gives him 5 minutes. In any event, judges enforcing the Constitution being worse than totalitarian states, slavery, and mass murder is clearly absurd. They should be “out of control” – out of control of Congress and out of control of the President. Otherwise, who will enforce the Constitution? Who will be trusted to speak impartially? Pat Robertson needs to publically be called what he is – a straitjacketed extreme right-wing ideologue who uses hyperbole to get attention. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-claims-federal-judges-are-greater-threat-than-al-qaeda-nazi-germany/302171/11 "2005-05-03T03:43:21Z")
Why is this man not out campaigning for those Republicans facing close races in 2006? The dems would win some seats for sure then! ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-claims-federal-judges-are-greater-threat-than-al-qaeda-nazi-germany/302171/12 "2005-05-03T03:54:12Z")
There’s plenty not to like about the some of the judiciary, but comparing them to al Qaeda is, frankly, anti-American and unpatriotic. Likewise his claims about the Axis and the Civil War. Simply disgusting. Not unexpected, given his comments immediately following 9-11 in which he seemed to ascribe it (or agree to the ascribing of it) to God’s will, but disgusting and un-American nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![griffen2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ce7236/32.png) [@griffen2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffen2)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-claims-federal-judges-are-greater-threat-than-al-qaeda-nazi-germany/302171/13 "2005-05-03T04:27:14Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > If he said that in an interview, and it was broadcast… then he IS being mocked as a nutbag by the mainstream media. No, a _mocking_ article would go something like "Today, religious right-wing bloviator extroadinaire Pat Robertson proved once and for all that the barely functioning ounce of grey matter marinating in cerebral fluid between his ears is about as much use as a small, wooden schooldesk in the face of a thermonuclear explosion. Opining that allegedly activist Judges, co-incidentally the only section of the legislative branch not under Republican control, was a greater threat than Al-Qaeda, Robertson argued that judges were creating a “tyranny of oligarchy” demonstrating that he has no idea what ‘oligarchy’ actually means. Instead of alerting Robertson to the fact that Congress had approved more than 95% of President Bush’s judicial nominations, the highest number on record, and instead of asking him just where his fucking outrage was when Roy Moore was fighting tooth and nail to violate the Establishment clause of the Constitution by erecting a great big concrete block o’ Yahweh in an Alabama courthouse, we predict that the liberal media will just take his comments on face value in an asinine pretence of objectivity. The writer of this article, however, secretly wishes that Robertson become stricken with a necrotizing bacterial infection of the asshole post haste, if for no better reason than to provide an explanation for why he’s always got his fucking thumb jammed up there." The article, by contrast, is only mildly sardonic in tone and that’s only if you’re being generous. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-claims-federal-judges-are-greater-threat-than-al-qaeda-nazi-germany/302171/14 "2005-05-03T04:48:28Z")
> [@galen ubal](#): > > Serious question here - I realize that “activist judges” are a favored target of the fringe of the Right, but can anyone give me an example of rulings by such judges that aren’t self-evidently reasonable? How about the 2000 election? Oh, sorry… wrong activist judges. The most disgusting thing to me about Robertson is that he makes all these charges while being a supporter and business partner of some of the most brutal murderours dictators in Africa (amazing that so many of his associates in Africa are black considering his pro-Apartheid stance [which of course had nothing to do with his investment in white owned South African diamond mines]). ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-claims-federal-judges-are-greater-threat-than-al-qaeda-nazi-germany/302171/15 "2005-05-03T04:55:02Z")
Or course its mockery! Even if they just aired his statements as he said, without editing or comment… Look at Stephanopolos’ eyebrows! See there! Thats a Greek eyebrow-gesture, its the equivalent of singing “Douche-bag! Douche-bag!” like “Air-ball Air-ball!” ---
**Author:** ![griffen2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ce7236/32.png) [@griffen2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffen2)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-claims-federal-judges-are-greater-threat-than-al-qaeda-nazi-germany/302171/16 "2005-05-03T04:56:05Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > The most disgusting thing to me about Robertson is that he makes all these charges while being a supporter and business partner of some of the most brutal murderours dictators in Africa (amazing that so many of his associates in Africa are black considering his pro-Apartheid stance [which of course had nothing to do with his investment in white owned South African diamond mines]). Initially skeptical that even Pat would stoop this low I scurried away to do some research. It’s [true](http://www.geocities.com/capitolhill/7027/news.html), though. He did hold a pro-apartheid stance while owning stock in South African diamond mines. Not only that, but he used the 700 club’s money to transport diamond mining equipment to Zaire. Damn, he’s even more of a cunt than I thought he was. ---
**Author:** ![Talon\_Karrde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Talon\_Karrde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Talon_Karrde)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-claims-federal-judges-are-greater-threat-than-al-qaeda-nazi-germany/302171/17 "2005-05-03T04:57:21Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > How about the 2000 election? > > Oh, sorry… wrong activist judges. > > The most disgusting thing to me about Robertson is that he makes all these charges while being a supporter and business partner of some of the most brutal murderours dictators in Africa (amazing that so many of his associates in Africa are black considering his pro-Apartheid stance [which of course had nothing to do with his investment in white owned South African diamond mines]). Holy Carp, I never realized how bad he was. Re the OP, it seems to me like he’s just playing the escalation game. “Federal judges are bad” “Yeah, they’re a bunch of activists” “They’re eroding our freedoms!” “Oh yeah? They’re worse than THE NAZI’S. I win!” ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-claims-federal-judges-are-greater-threat-than-al-qaeda-nazi-germany/302171/18 "2005-05-03T05:01:02Z")
What can ABC News be thinking? It’s not as if this lunatic doesn’t have his own microphone. Someone get the hook for the person in charge of programming. ---
**Author:** ![griffen2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ce7236/32.png) [@griffen2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffen2)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-claims-federal-judges-are-greater-threat-than-al-qaeda-nazi-germany/302171/19 "2005-05-03T05:02:09Z")
> [@Talon Karrde](#): > > Holy Carp, I never realized how bad he was. Yeah, me neither. Has anyone ever done a documentary on him or anything? Seems like he could do with a little ‘unofficial exposure’. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2005, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-claims-federal-judges-are-greater-threat-than-al-qaeda-nazi-germany/302171/20 "2005-05-03T06:16:38Z")
> [@](#): > > “Yes, I really believe that,” he said. “I think they are destroying the fabric that holds our nation together.” …says the guy who lined his bank account with [gold-mining deals with Charles Taylor,](http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A7124-2001Sep21) the terrorist-sponsoring tyrannical (now ex-)dictator of Liberia. :rolleyes: “Liberal media,” my ass. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pat-robertson-claims-federal-judges-are-greater-threat-than-al-qaeda-nazi-germany/302171.md?page=2)