Posted on 09/30/2005 12:25:04 PM PDT by Kaslin
WASHINGTON - The White House on Friday criticized former Education Secretary William Bennett for remarks linking the crime rate and the abortion of black babies.
"The president believes the comments were not appropriate," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.
Bennett, on his radio show, "Morning in America," was answering a caller's question when he took issue with the hypothesis put forth in a recent book that one reason crime is down is that abortion is up.
"But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down," said Bennett, author of "The Book of Virtues."
He went on to call that "an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky."
Responding later to criticism, Bennett said his comments had been mischaracterized and that his point was that the idea of supporting abortion to reduce crime was "morally reprehensible."
Bennett was education secretary under President Reagan and director of drug control policy when Bush's father was president.
I miss Ari as well.
A pretty dumb thing to say, even if true.
Oh well those where the good old days.
Wolf Blitzer just got smacked down by Bill Bennett's brother for ambushing him with a question about the comments.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Too bad. Bennett said nothing wrong.
I guess the lesson is that you cannot speak certain things regardless of fact. Just because the crime rate among blacks is higher than among other groups does not translate into a statement about race. It's about culture, but the gutless occupants of the WH are too scared to recognize that fact. So once again, the innocent pay for the excesses of the guilty race-baiters.
Dammit, George, will you STOP already pandering to the liberals?
I saw the tail end of that, please tell me a little more about what happened? I heard Robert Bennett tell Wolf he was "offended"
Dumb thing to say? Bennett or the WH?
You know, I'm starting to get a little miffed. We complain about how Bush is "too nice" and "won't fight back" against Dem'Rats. So what does Bush do? He fights back and criticizes a conservative. Makes me wonder if Bush even knows what he is talking about, or where is loyalties really are. Grrrrrrr ....
"'The president believes the comments were not appropriate,' White House press secretary Scott McClellan said."
In today's heated rhetoric climate, that seems mild, but for W, it is pretty strong.
Yep - sends out his wimpy lapdog McLellan, who is by far the most ineffective WH spokesperson in modern American history, to criticize a loyal Republican. Meanwhile, him and his family kiss Clinton's lying ass. I'm sick of it.
The white house.
i concur, we run and hide when we should stand up and declare that THEY apologize.
I remember how groups and various studies indicated that more blacks were behind bar than whites and the racial profiling issue. Now given that, "an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down" would make Bennett's statement true.
I'm not going to read the article, but, it was McClellan wasn't it ?
If only he could stand up to the media and refuse to get dragged into their stuck on stupid questions.
I am mystified that the WH refuses to accept that McClellan's dismal performance as press sec, just feeds into the media's disinformation campaign.
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