Another double standard

Back in 1997, George Stephanopoulos, fresh from his influential post in the Clinton White House, called for the assassination of Saddam Hussein in a Newsweek article subtly titled “Why We Should Kill Saddam.”
No self-righteous editorials condemning Stephanopoulos as a loose cannon. No endless talking-head discussions on how his words upset our diplomatic efforts in the Middle East. No reprimands on how a dictator was given proof that the U.S. was out to get him.
Instead, Stephanopoulos has been rewarded with media prominence and gets to expound his moderate views on ABC’s “This Week.”
Unlike private citizen Robertson, Stephanopoulos advanced his idea when he still had the ear of the U.S. president, after we had just fought a war with Iraq. “Assassination may be Clinton’s best option,” Stephanopoulos wrote. “If we can kill Saddam, we should.”
I suspect the media outrage over Robertson is really undisguised glee over the opportunity and ammunition he gave them to broadly paint the Christian right, a major part of the Bush base, as a bunch of loonies, as opposed to cooler heads like Howard Dean.