This week's liberal media fixation was Pat Robertson's statement about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Robertson said:

You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it.

Oh the horrors of a private citizen mulling about the notion of giving a paranoid dictator a taste of what he doles out to his own people on a daily basis. Pat Robertson is a conservative evangelical preacher and so, predictably, the frothing liberal media has trumpeted Robertson's comment as a major news story because: (a) they care about Americans calling for the assassination of a foreign leader, or (b) they will take any opportunity to attack a conservative?

George Stephanopoulos is currently the host of ABC's Sunday morning news show, "This Week." Stephanopoulos was previously Bill Clinton's Press Secretary, Communications Director and Senior Advisor on Policy and Strategy. After leaving the Clinton White House, the former senior government advisor wrote an article which appeared in the December 1, 1997, issue of Newsweek magazine entitled: "Why We Should Kill Saddam." In it Stephanopoulos wrote:

If we can kill Saddam, we should.

What's unlawful - and unpopular with the allies - is not necessarily immoral.

First, we could offer to provide money and materiel to Iraqi exiles willing to lead an effort to overthrow Saddam...The second option is a targeted airstrike against the homes or bunkers where Saddam is most likely to be hiding.

Stephanopoulos had previously called for Saddam Hussein's assassination on ABC'S "This Week," on November 9, 1997: "This is probably one of those rare cases where assassination is the more moral course...we should kill him." The discussion of which was probably the genesis of Stephanopoulos' Newsweek column.

Now everyone remembers the uproar over Stephanopoulos' comments, right? You don't? Well, that's because there was none. In fact, the liberal talking heads themselves were calling for the assassination of Saddam Hussein around the same time:

Thomas Friedman, foreign affairs columnist, New York Times, November 6, 1997: "Saddam Hussein is the reason God created cruise missiles. ...So if and when Saddam pushes beyond the brink, and we get that one good shot, let's make sure it's a head shot."

Sam Donaldson, co-host of ABC's "This Week," November 9, 1997: We should kill Saddam "under cover of law.... We can do business with his successor."

Bill Kristol, ABC News analyst, for ABC's "This Week," November 9, 1997: "It sounds good to me."

Cokie Roberts, co-host of ABC's "This Week," November 9, 1997: "Well, now that we've come out for murder on this broadcast, let us move on to fast-track..."

Jonathan Alter, Newsweek, November 17, 1997: "It won't be easy to take him out. ...But we need to try, because the only language Saddam has ever understood is force."

Clearly, the liberal media does not have a problem calling for the assassination of a foreign leader. The only reason Pat Robertson's comments made the headlines this week is that they, one, came from a conservative and, two, the liberal media was either too stupid or just hoped no one would remember their own comments and/or lack of condemnation of their peer's comments. If you want to continue believing there is no liberal media bias, that's fine. Meanwhile, people with good memories or access to Lexis/Nexis or Westlaw will know otherwise.