Shameful Attacks (on Bill Bennett)

NRO.com ^ | 9-30-05 | Andrew C. McCarthy

[Excellence]

"Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, thought much the same thing as Bennett."

She, too, thought abortion morally reprehensible?

[lawdude]

"Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, thought much the same thing as Bennett."

Ah, Swedge...Since September 28, 2005. Racist As*hole. Dem troll.

Go back to DU where you can chat with your own brand of liars.

[rdb3]

Bill Bennett stresses our morality…and pays the price.

Rule #4 of Salinsky's Rules for Radicals. Textbook leftism.

If you want a Google GMail account, FReepmail me.
They're going fast!

[Sir Gawain]

lol

[Blzbba]

"He's not a politician, he is a philosopher. And, no, it was not assinine. It's about time that conservatives, no matter what the stripe, stopped worrying about what the other side says. I'm done w/liberals telling ME what to talk about. Political Correctness is done in my book. Tell it like it is. If you don't like the heat...... get out of the kitchen. Repubs need to get some SPINE."


OK. Then here's my statement: If we could just kill all white people living in trailer parks, we'd practically eliminate the methamphetamine plague this country is experiencing. Now, I'm not endorsing that stance, but that would halt meth usage in this country.

If Bennett is a philosopher, then so are you & I.

[Blzbba]

"I can't believe those who think this sort of rhetoric is perfectly OK for politicians or public officials."


Yep. Apparently, anything goes for anyone with an (R) beside their name.

Meanwhile, can you imagine the outrage here if Jester Jackson said: "Killing all the white people in trailer parks would halt the methamphetamine scourge afflicting this country, not that I'm endorsing such genocide."?

[Blzbba]

"Any "conservative" who condemns Bennett for saying the uncomfortable and unfortunate truth about crime and the black American community should not be considered a conservative. The one bedrock conservative value is truth, and it is undeniably true that young black American males commit serious crimes at a far greater per capita rate than any other ethnic group. If his critics can prove his statement to be incorrect, then let's see the proof."


OK, as long as you'd have similar "Yeah, he's right!" feelings when some Jester Jackson/Lewis Phoneykhan makes a statement along the lines of killing all white people in trailer parks to reduce meth usage, because - hey, statistically, that WOULD cut down meth usage, "not that I'm endorsing it.", or "Killing all illegal Mexican immigrants would drive up the price of day labor for American businesses, not that I'm for such measures."

See, even though it may be a 'statistical fact', most sane people don't even let the idea of killing off an ethnic race of babies enter their mind.

[TChad]

I still don't understand what part of what he said was wrong?

Those who criticize Bennett seem to fall into two groups.

The first and least honest group says that Bennett advocated aborting black babies to reduce crime. It is obvious to anyone who reads Bennett's remark in context that he didn't say that.

The second group says that Bennett was associating blacks as a group with criminality. This is true enough, and is grounded in fact: blacks commit crimes at a far higher rate than the general population. However, this is a politically incorrect fact that liberals insist not be mentioned, and Bennett mentioned it.

For Bush to leave Bennett twisting in the wind over this was very wrong.

[Afronaut]

There is a third group, people who think the Virtuous Slot machine player is a buffoon. I can't believe anyone would defend this guy. Because he is what? a REPUBLICAN? Since the left spits out garbage the right should be able to do the same? Thats no way to reach higher ground now is it?

What a stupid thing to say, I guess he gets a bit more spotlight before he retires down to Alantic City.

I can list a thousand things that are true that should not be said during a broadcast.

[ncdave4life]

The folks at democrats.com say that this incident proves that Bill Bennett is a typical conservative genocidal racist. When I posted the following reply, their totalitarian instincts kicked in, and they responded by (1) deleting my message, and (2) freezing my login id, and (3) blocking my IP address (which was dynamic, haha!).

Here's their blog: http://www.democrats.com/node/6300

Here's my (now deleted) message: comment-39840

Here's almost the same thing, in a pair of messages at "daily kos." So far, they haven't been deleted: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/28/194633/686#37

Here's most of the Daily Kos version:

First, let us acknowledge the fact that crime rates are partially correlated with various demographics. Men commit more crimes than women. Young adults commit more crimes than middle aged and older adults. Single Americans commit more crimes than married Americans. Black Americans commit more crimes than white Americans. Etc., etc.. Those are just facts, proved by statistics, which any honest and even moderately well informed person must acknowledge are true. Facts are stubborn things, but they are not racist, sexist, or ageist. They are simply true.

But so what? Does that mean we should kill all the young single black men, to reduce crime? Of course not. Nobody to the right of Peter Singer would advocate such a thing.

So why does anyone suppose that Bill Bennett did? Bennett is famously pro-life, so you know he wasn't advocating abortion. His point, made via reductio ad absurdum, was obviously about the offensiveness of basing arguments about abortion, which is the murder of innocent children, on mere economics.

You don't have to agree with his point to acknowledge that that was obviously the point he was making. He might have said, "should we promote or opposed abortion if economists said that it would make the trains run on time?" But instead of paraphrasing defenders of Mussolini, Bennett chose a reference more pertinent to a discussion about abortion. He parodied Steven D. Levitt, and loosly paraphrased that icon of the American Left, the founder of Planned Parenthood (then called the American Birth Control League), Margaret Sanger.

Sanger was a notorious racist and eugenicist, and an early admirer of Adolf Hitler. Bennett knows that Sanger infamously advocated birth control for Negroes and other "inferior" people, "to create a race of thoroughbreds." (ref: The Birth Control Review, Nov. 1921) That's why she located her birth control clinics in minority neighborhoods: to reduce birthrates in those communities.

Hey, when some guy slams one of your idols, it is understandable that you might be offended. But it appears that nobody on the Left understands WHY they should be offended by what Bill Bennett said.

Did all the liberals really miss the allusion to Sanger? Or are they just pretending to think Bennett is racist, to score political points?

-Dave
dave146 at burtonsys.com

[TChad]

There is a third group, people who think the Virtuous Slot machine player is a buffoon. I can't believe anyone would defend this guy.

It is obvious that you don’t like Bennett. I like him better than you do, but he preaches, and I don’t enjoy being preached at except by people I strongly respect. I have heard about Bennett’s gambling problems, but it’s his money.

I can't believe anyone would defend this guy. Because he is what? a REPUBLICAN?

No, that’s not it. I criticized (Republican) Bush in the same post. I defended Bennett because he was falsely accused. I just don't like false accusation, and I am especially fed up with Democrats falsely accusing Republicans of racism.

Since the left spits out garbage the right should be able to do the same?

Garbage is garbage, ours or theirs. This time, it is the accusations against Bennett that are garbage. After.over 20 years in the public eye, after all his books and speeches and television appearances, it is obvious that Bennett does not promote racism, and is not a racist. One ambiguous sentence, and now he’s Bull Connor? That is so dishonest it is barely worth refuting.

Thats no way to reach higher ground now is it?

It is impossible to reach higher ground if one side tries relentlessly to drag the other back into the swamp, given the slightest excuse. I am sick of political correctness that makes people fearfully tip-toe around racial issues. Oh, someone might be offended!!! Screw it. How do you expect to make progress without open communication? How do you expect to have open communication when one side can get away with pulling a stunt like this, taking Bennett’s words out of context manufacturing a scandal out of thin air?

I can list a thousand things that are true that should not be said during a broadcast.

Since you must know that Bennett was not advocating aborting blacks, I guess you must mean that he should not have implied that the black crime rate was higher than the national average. Why not? It is common knowledge, and it was relevant to his subject. It is also common knowledge that most blacks are not criminals. If Bennett continually harped on the high black crime rate, you would have a point, but he does not do that.

[BigSkyFreeper]

That's your opinion.

Right, and my opinion was not said to diminish yours.

[epow]

See, even though it may be a 'statistical fact', most sane people don't even let the idea of killing off an ethnic race of babies enter their mind.

You are ignoring the context in which Bennett's allegedly "offensive" comment was made. The caller first raised the subject of abortion by citing unspecified studies which purport to show that the large number of abortions which took place in the 1970's and '80's is partially responsible for there being fewer taxpayers today and in the future, hence the impending shortage of funds for SS, Medicare, and the like. In that context it is quite understandable that Bennett would also mention abortion in attempting to illustrate a point relevant to the caller's comments. Can any one of us say that we would have had the presence of mind NOT to make a similar spur of the moment comment under those same circumstances? I certainly can't.

I had read and heard about the uproar over Bennett's unpardonable sin before I heard a tape of the broadcast conversation. When I finally heard the tape I was incredulous that so much controversy, outrage, and general silliness could have been provoked by such an innocuous comment. Talk about your tempests in a teapot, the artificial outrage over this non-event which has been ginned up by the liberal MSM is a teapot tempest for the record book IMO.

I find it equally incredible that so many supposedly conservative FR regulars would leap at the chance to join hands with the MSM opportunists to condemn Bennett for what was at the very worst nothing more than using poor judgment.

[Blzbba]

"for what was at the very worst nothing more than using poor judgment."


Which is my main complaint, btw. That it was a stupid thing to say for someone in his position, since everything he says will be magnified and used against the (R) party.

[Paulus Invictus]

Everything McLellan says is vetted by his superiors. He does not make up the statements, he just reads them.

[righteousindignation]

This is tardy but I wish to register that my initial feeling was that Bennett should have 'known his enemy' to the degree that he would only use what could be a series of soundbite quotables in public and still make his point. However I realize I was wimping out and I now believe we must stand our ground as Conservatives and still have our freedom of speech and let the libs do whatever they do, which is so over the top evil that more and more Americans will see the Truth. I HOPE AND PRAY!!!

[TAdams8591]

An excellent post. I agree with all your points. Bill Bennett does NOT deserve this.

He was using a Jonathan Swift like proposal to argue that utilitarion arguments both FOR or AGAINST abortion can be absurd and dangerous.

[TAdams8591]

"but to suggest that the mere odds that a fetus will someday be more likely to commit a crime, should be a death sentence, is ludicrous."

That was precisely the point he was attemptiong to make.

He was cautioning against using utilitarian arguments either FOR or AGAINST abortion as they "cut both ways."

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Leave the White House out of it. They should have never been asked in the first place, but what they you don't mind carrying the lib media's water yourself.

Bill Bennett is a private citizen. He doesn't work for the Bush administration. Therefore, the WH should have STFU.

Maybe the WH should start issuing statements condemning leftists for comparing the President to Bull Connor and other assorted vile names, instead of condemning a conservative's right to speak.

[JSteff]

"Excuse me I did hear the whole statement and my opinion stands."

An opinion based on faulty incomplete data is a faulted statement and is EXACTLY what the dems are doing. So how does it strike you if I you read that I said "....cyborg is an idiot...?"

Even though what I really night have said was "Many think and have said the cyborg is an idiot, but I disagree. I think he is logical and well spoken."

Get the picture? Same thing happened with Bennett. Knee jerk reaction without complete context, facts, a little research.

Same thing.