Out of the Arena: Pat Robertson, past and present.(Pat Robertson, in a TV interview, declined to criticize China's forced abortions policy, although in a later statement he declared his opposition)

Pat Robertson recently committed what may be the most startling gaffe of his career. It was a big belly flop of a blunder, one that might have finished off his reputation among conservatives. What's truly amazing, though, is how little reputation he had left, even before this late offense.

During a CNN interview on April 16, Wolf Blitzer asked Robertson, chairman of the Christian Coalition, for an opinion on "the so-called forced abortions in China." It wasn't clear what Blitzer meant by "so- called"-either abortions are forced or they aren't, and in China they are-but it was a high, hanging softball of a question for any pro-life spokesman. Robertson managed to whiff, somehow. He thought it was worth considering the matter from the perspective of the Chinese government: "They've got 1.2 billion people, and they don't know what to do. If every family over there was allowed to have three or four children, the population would be completely unsustainable." He went on to cite "the risk of a tremendous unemployment" and the tragic possibility that the Chinese people would become "too restive." Robertson summed up: "So I think that right now they're doing what they have to do. I don't agree with the forced abortion, but I don't think the United States needs to interfere with what they're doing."

They're doing what they have to do. Now that's a hard comment to live down. Any pro-life leader who defends China's forced-abortion policy isn't going to remain a pro-life leader for long. Robertson later released a statement saying that, come to think of it, "I am unalterably opposed to the policy which would result in forced abortions." But the damage was done. "His comment went right to the heart of the organization's issues," says Chuck Cunningham, a former Christian Coalition lobbyist. "He stirred up a hornet's nest with the state affiliates."

Or at least what remains of them. There used to be one in every state, but today only a handful are still vigorous. The Christian Coalition, to tell the truth, has collapsed almost completely. The group's clout on Capitol Hill barely registers. In April, it canceled its national convention. "The Christian Coalition is a hollow shell," says Michael Cromartie of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. "There's nothing left."

It's tempting to blame the whole mess on Robertson. He has, in fact, demonstrated a powerful penchant for goofiness. Appearing on his 700 Club television show three years ago, he made an apocalyptic prediction about "Gay Pride Day" at Disney World. "I would warn Orlando that you're right in the way of some serious hurricanes, and I don't think I'd be waving those flags in God's face if I were you," he said. "A condition like this will bring about the destruction of your nation. It'll bring about terrorist bombs, it'll bring earthquakes, tornadoes, and possibly a meteor."

Perhaps it's possible to laugh off a couple of stray comments like that one-except that Robertson can't seem to go more than a few weeks without delivering another head-spinner. He has also made this declaration: "Just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is now doing to the evangelical Christians." Robertson's intemperate remarks have often galled conservatives. Shortly before the 1996 election, for instance, he declared that Bob Dole didn't stand a chance. During Bill Clinton's impeachment ordeal, he repeatedly urged Republicans to give up: "From a public-relations standpoint, [Clinton has] won. They might as well dismiss this impeachment hearing and get on with something else, because it's over as far as I'm concerned." Statements like that are helpful neither to the conservative cause nor to Robertson's own. Such a proclivity for unmeasured rhetoric is a debilitating handicap-the sort of thing that can uproot and destroy whole organizations.

Nobody can deny that the Christian Coalition made a lasting imprint on American politics. Founded shortly after Robertson's failed presidential bid in 1988, the group soared to great heights in a very short time. It fought a guerrilla war against the National Endowment for the Arts during the first Bush administration, and its dues-paying membership boomed after Clinton's inauguration. The Christian Coalition ...