Preaching With a Vengeance: WaPo on Pat Robertson

Interesting portrait of a crazy man: "As Robertson's strange public statements have mounted in recent years, his political clout has diminished, and even fellow Christian leaders have tired of defending or explaining him, some observers say.

'Whether there are a lot of moms in Alabama or Kansas or Missouri who watch Pat [on television] every day while ironing, his own influence among the larger religious conservative movement has been on the wane for some time and is largely torpedoing,' says Michael Cromartie, director of the Evangelicals and Civic Life Project at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

'On the conservative side politically, everybody's avoiding this guy and trying to figure out how not to make him mad and, at the same time, not make him an ally,' he said."