TV preacher Pat Robertson is trying to put the toothpaste back into the tube, but his apologies and denials can not undo the damage done by calling for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Hopefully, this latest absurdity will be enough to drive Robertson from the airwaves.

Robertson is a national figure who once ran for the Republican nomination for president. He speaks for – and to – many of the country’s most conservative Christians. On Monday, during a broadcast of his show, “The 700 Club,” Robertson said that the U.S. should “take him out,” referring to Chavez.

Chavez, already paranoid after a failed coup in 2002 that President Bush was quick to embrace, has used sharp rhetoric aimed at the United States and the Bush administration to raise his international profile. He has embraced Cuba’s brutal dictator, Fidel Castro. And he has used his country’s status as the world’s fifth-largest supplier of oil to spread his influence throughout Latin and South America. The last thing he needs is more ammunition from an American blowhard, a man with high level political connections in the Republican Party, but a blowhard no less.

In the past, Robertson has said that liberal judges pose a bigger threat to the United States than do terrorists. He has blamed what he deemed “immorality” for the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. And threatened that Orlando would be struck by a hurricane from God if the city went forward with a gay-rights celebration.

After initially denying that he had said Chavez should be assassinated – blaming the media for taking his words out of context – Robertson apologized.

The U.S. State Department has said that Robertson’s comments were “inappropriate.” That condemnation is not nearly strong enough.

When a radical Muslim cleric issues a fatwa against the United States or calls for violence, the cries are immediate that it is up to the Islamic community to respond aggressively with condemnation. The same standard should apply at home.

Robertson’s comments cry out for strong condemnation by the president and other Christians.