Is Westboro Baptist Church a hate group?

For me, when Pat Robertson makes some hateful remark, and it gets picked up by the news cycle, it's not in the same league as when the WBC makes an disruptive, innappropriate appearance in force at a funeral.

For me I think Pat Robertson is actually worse.
Unlike Phelps he has a wide reaching comprehensive media network which some people actually think is credible, unlike Phelps he has access to politicians and partakes in national events as an insider not as a nutter screaming from the sidewalk down the block, unlike Phelps I think the hate filled bigot actually really believes what he says.
Any one of those alone makes him worse than Phelps, a combination of them makes him a lot worse than the WBC