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May 2, 2005
Did Thomas Jefferson Ever Say Anything Like That?
Sunday on ABC's This Week the following exchange took place between George Stephanopoulos and Pat Robertson.
Stephanopoulos: You know, President Bush at that press conference also said that he believes you're equally American, whether you're Christian, Muslim or Jew. And I wonder if you fully accept that. Because in the past, you've said that you believe that only Christians and Jews are qualified to serve in the government.Is that still your belief?
Robertson: Well, Thomas Jefferson, who was the author of the Declaration of Independence, said he wouldn't have any atheists in his cabinet because atheists wouldn't swear an oath to God. That was Jefferson.
And we have never had any Muslims in the Cabinet. I didn't say, "serve in government." I said, "in my Cabinet, if I were elected president." And I think a president has the right to take people who share his point of view. And I would think that would be. . .[Sunday Morning Talk]
Robertson's endorsement of a religious test for cabinet officers has been rightly demolished here and here and here and here and here and elsewhere. My question is about his appeal to the authority of Thomas Jefferson. Did Thomas Jefferson ever say anything remotely like that? I know it is at best an indirect quote, but where did it come from? I've looked high and low and can find nothing in the Jefferson corpus like it. I can't even find it in the pseudo Jefferson corpus that is sometimes appealed to. Did Robertson just pull this out of his a . . . ah . . . ah . . . ear?
I really don't know. But I do think that erroneous quotes are so often used by the likes of Robertson that interviewers should routinely say something like, "Oh, that interesting, I have never heard that before. Can you give me the reference so I can look it up? After the show would be fine."
If anyone knows where Robertson's Jefferson reference came from, I would like to know.
Note: Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Cultural Wars has a great post on another ridiculous aspect of this unbelievably presentation by Robertson.
Posted by Duane Smith at May 2, 2005 8:02 PM | Read more on Current Events |
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