- WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Congressional
Democrats blasted former Education Secretary William Bennett on Thursday
for saying that aborting "every black baby in this country" would
reduce the crime rate, and demanded their Republican counterparts do the
same.
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- "This is precisely the kind of insensitive, hurtful
and ignorant rhetoric that Americans have grown tired of," said Rep.
Bobby Rush, D-Illinois.
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- Bennett, who held prominent posts in the administrations
of former presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, told a caller to his
syndicated radio talk show Wednesday: "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.
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- "That would be an impossibly ridiculous and morally
reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down," he
said.
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- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, called
on President Bush to condemn the comments by Bennett, who was anti-drug
chief in Bush's father's administration.
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- "What could possibly have possessed Secretary Bennett
to say those words, especially at this time?" Pelosi asked. "What
could he possibly have been thinking? This is what is so alarming about
his words."
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- Bennett stood by his comments Thursday night.
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- "I was putting forward a hypothetical proposition.
Put that forward. Examined it. And then said about it that it's morally
reprehensible. To recommend abortion of an entire group of people in order
to lower your crime rate is morally reprehensible. But this is what happens
when you argue that the ends can justify the means," he told CNN.
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- "I'm not racist, and I'll put my record up against
theirs," referring to Pelosi and other critics. "I've been a
champion of the real civil rights issue of our times -- equal educational
opportunities for kids."
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- "We've got to have candor and talk about these things
while we reject wild hypotheses," Bennett said.
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- "I don't think people have the right to be angry,
if they look at the whole thing. But if they get a selective part of my
comment, I can see why they would be angry. If somebody thought I was advocating
that, they ought to be angry. I would be angry."
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- "But that's not what I advocate."
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- Asked if he owed people an apology, Bennett replied,
"I don't think I do. I think people who misrepresented my view owe
me an apology."
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- Bennett served as Reagan's chairman of the National Endowment
for the Humanities from 1981-1985 and secretary of education from 1985-1988.
From 1989-1990, he served as "drug czar" in the administration
of the elder Bush.
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- Rush called on "my friends, the responsible Republicans"
to rebuke the former Cabinet official by backing a House resolution condemning
his remarks as "outrageous racism of the most bigoted and ignorant
kind."
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- "Where is the indignation from the GOP, as one of
their prominent members talk about aborting an entire race of Americans
as a way of ridding this country of crime?" asked Rush, a former Black
Panther. "How ridiculous! How asinine! How insane can one be?"
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- He called instead for "aborting" Republican
policies "which have hurt the disadvantaged, the poor, average Americans
for the benefit of large corporations."
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- Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said he was "appalled"
by Bennett's remarks.
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- "The Republican Party has recently taken great pains
to reach out to the African-American community, and I hope that they will
be swift in condemning Mr. Bennett's comments as nothing short of callous
and ignorant," said Reid, D-Nevada.
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- And Bruce Gordon, president and CEO of the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People, demanded an apology from Bennett
and the Salem Radio Network, which airs his radio program.
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- "In 2005, there is no place for the kind of racist
statement made by Bennett," Gordon said in a written statement. "While
the entire nation is trying to help survivors, black and white, to recover
from the damage caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, it is unconscionable
for Bennett to make such ignorant and insensitive comments."
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- A man who answered the phone at the network said no one
would be available to comment until Friday.
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- Bennett's 1993 repackaging of traditional morality tales,
"The Book of Virtues," became a bestseller, and Bennett became
a popular lecturer on moral issues. But in 2003, stung by news reports
that he had lost millions of dollars in Las Vegas and Atlantic City over
the last decade, he publicly renounced gambling and vowed to stay away
from the slots from then on.
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- He is a Fox News contributor and chairman of "Americans
for Victory over Terrorism," which his Web site calls "a project
dedicated to sustaining and strengthening public opinion as the war on
terrorism moves forward."
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- http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/30/bennett.
comments/index.html?section=cnn_us
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