October
5, 2005
Conservatives Inexcusably Defend Bill Bennett
By Ruben
Navarette Jr.
SAN DIEGO
-- I can't decide which is more nauseating: Bill Bennett's stupid
remarks suggesting that aborting black babies could solve the
crime problem; or the way in which some of Bennett's pals in the
conservative media have tried to excuse what he said by pooh-poohing
the idea that his remarks were, in any way, offensive.
Wait, I've
just decided. It's the second one. After all, if you really wanted
to defend Bennett (and trust me, I don't) you could say that the
former education secretary just got carried away while yakking
it up on his radio talk show and suffered a slip of the tongue.
His conservative friends, on the other hand, have had several
days to reflect on what Bennett said. So they can't very well
claim that their responses came in the heat of the moment. Their
ignorance is premeditated, and thus inexcusable.
Article
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I'm usually
one of Bennett's fans. I've liked him since he teamed with black
parents in the inner city to try to shame Time Warner into dropping
``gangsta'' rappers and their repugnant lyrics from its music
label. And I praised him when he teamed with fellow Republicans
Jack Kemp and Linda Chavez and traveled to California to oppose
the repugnant Proposition 187, a mean-spirited ballot initiative
that sought to deny education and other services to illegal immigrants.
Yet there
is not much to like in Bennett's remarks last week suggesting
that one way to reduce crime in the United States is to ``abort
every black baby in this country.'' That would be, as Bennett
insisted in his next breath, ``an impossible, ridiculous and morally
reprehensible thing to do.'' But, he concluded, ``your crime rate
would go down."
Bennett has
spent the last week refusing to apologize, insisting his words
were taken out of context and mischaracterized.
That's not
a good argument when what you said was caught on tape.
Bennett
says that he was merely engaging in a ``thought experiment'' and
that his comments should not be receiving this level of attention.
He's also playing the victim, insisting that what should really
offend people is the way that he is being treated.
Bennett
should quit blustering and apologize.
His remarks
were hurtful, insensitive and unfit for any forum, let alone a
nationally syndicated radio show heard in more than 100 markets.
At worst, the comments were racist. At best, what Bennett called
a thought experiment was just plain thoughtless.
Even some
conservatives admit that. Bennett's remarks didn't go over well
with President Bush, who, according to spokesman Scott McClellan,
thought they were ``not appropriate.''
I know.
That's awfully weak. But don't expect to get even that much out
of Bennett's hard-core defenders on the red team. All you see
from them is a lot of political spin and wagon-circling.
Right-wing
radio and television host Sean Hannity labeled ``appalling'' the
accusation by some Democrats that Bennett has ``any racist bone
in his body.'' During the most recent installment of ``Fox News
Sunday,'' Bill Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard and someone
who once worked for Bennett in the Department of Education, used
his perch as a Fox News contributor to second the motion that
Bennett was no racist. Fox News Managing Editor Brit Hume asked
if Bennett didn't have a point, given statistics suggesting that
blacks account for more than their share of crime, and he insisted
that Bennett had nothing for which to apologize. And right-wing
radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, a longtime friend of Bennett's,
went even further. He suggested that Bennett should actually be
``applauded'' for arguing that abortion is a moral issue that
can't be justified by, among other things, a desire to reduce
crime. Conservatives in the media, Limbaugh said, were going to
stick together and not ``let each other hang out to dry on something
like this.''
What is chilling
is the hypocrisy. This bunch seems to think that anyone who was
offended by Bennett's comments is thin-skinned and needs to get
over it. Fine. Yet, this is the same crowd that has -- in years
past -- been offended by everything from rap lyrics about killing
cops, to the film, ``Million Dollar Baby," with its treatment
of mercy killing, to the television show, ``Ellen," with its prominent
gay lead character, and most recently, to a postage stamp issued
by the Mexican government that celebrated a Sambo-like character.
Time and
again, the right-wingers have shown that they know how to take
offense. They just never learned the more important lesson: how
to hold their tongues and respect the right of others to be offended
by things that they don't find offensive.
©
2005, The San Diego Union-Tribune
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