Michael Gaynor
October 1, 2005
Mr. President, you owe Bill Bennett an apology; Rep. Conyers, the truth will set Bennett free
By Michael Gaynor

Despicable demagogue Democrats deem it politic to insinuate or even insist that President Bush is a racist. They did it during the 2000 and 2004 elections and after Hurricane Katrina. And they pretend that people like Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell, blacks whom President Bush chose as his Secretaries of State, somehow are not really black or self-respecting persons.

President Bush obviously is not a racist. Clinton apologist Lanny Davis, no Bush supporter but a Bush classmate, attested to that long ago, writing about college student. Bush being disgusted by prejudice against blacks.

Since President Bush has been wrongly defamed as a racist, he should be suspicious when that ugly charge is hurled, especially by character assassins like Representative John Conyers and shameless, pro-abortion nominally Catholics like Ted Kennedy and Nancy Pelosi, against a fellow pro-life Republican.

And particularly suspicious when the charge is made against a staunch pro-life advocate like Bill Bennett, President Reagan's Secretary of Education and the first President Bush's Drug Czar.

But, President Bush's spokesman commented that Bennett's recent remarks to a caller on his radio show about abortion, crime and race were "inappropriate."

NONSENSE! (And surely not likely to placate the incorrigible Bush and Bennett haters.)

Bennett is especially well qualified to discuss abortion, crime and race. And the caller, who correctly opposed abortion, but for a bad reason, needed to be enlightened.

Bennett did precisely that, using the Socratic method. And was reviled by the vile for doing so.

Let's start with the indisputable facts that Representative Conyers and others savaging Bennett conveniently ignore while railing against Bennett for racism:

1. BENNETT IS PRO-LIFE. ANTI-ABORTION. HE DOES NOT WANT ANYONE ABORTED!

2. The black crime rate IS higher than the white crime rate AND blacks are disproportionately overrepresented among the poor, so even if poverty is the entire explanation for the disparity between the black and white crime rates, the black crime rate will remain higher until there is no disparity as to wealth.

READ WHAT BENNETT AND THE CALLER ACTUALLY SAID AND YOU WILL APPRECIATE THAT BENNETT IS NOT CALLING FOR ABORTING ANY BABIES, INCLUDING BLACK BABIES, OR CLAIMING THAT RACE IS THE REASON FOR THE DISPARITY BETWEEN THE BLACK AND WHITE CRIME RATES!

AND REMEMBER THAT MOST VICTIMS OF BLACK CRIME ARE... BLACKS!!!


"BENNETT: ...I would not argue for the pro-life position based on this, because you don't know. I mean, it cuts both — you know, one of the arguments in this book Freakonomics that they make is that the declining crime rate, you know, they deal with this hypothesis, that one of the reasons crime is down is that abortion is up. Well -

"CALLER: Well, I don't think that statistic is accurate.

"BENNETT: Well, I don't think it is either, I don't think it is either, because first of all, there is just too much that you don't know. 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. That would be 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."

Character assassin Conyers (or his staff) deigned to acknowledge my MichNews post on his blog: http://www.conyersblog.us/default.htm.

The Conyers post, in full:

"Members are flocking to sign my letter to Salem Radio Networks demanding an explanation for Bill Bennett's off the wall remarks on Wedensday. By the end of the day Friday, we were up to 57 signatories (see extended entry), but not a single Republican.

"In the mean time, the right wing is having a field day criticizing me for criti[ci]zing Bennett, if you can believe that one — see this from something called michnews.com. Their arguments don't add up. First they say I am quoting Bennett our of context, by not observing that he later said it would be wrong to abort all Black fetuses. Of course, I included that in my letter. But what they miss is not the abortion "hypothetical" — as absurd and tasteless as that is — but Bennett's suggestion that African Americans are synonymous with crime. It is a text book case of stereotyping and racism, and cannot be explained away. Second they say I am a First Amendment hypocrite. I don't think there are many stronger First Amendment supporters in Congress than I am, but all I am suggesting is that those who use the air waves have a tad responsibility to not foment racism. I am not the FCC after all, but if Members of Congress can't speak the truth to these wingnuts, who can?

"Adam Smith, Grijalva, Tierney, Sherman, Baldwin, Pallone, Cleaver, Jackson Lee, Crowley, Larson, Lee, Meeks, Tauscher, Holt, Cardin, Schakowsky, Benny Thompson, McCollum, Al Green, Watson, Corrine Brown, Capuano, Farr, Van Hollen, Butterfield, Filner, George Miller, Lantos, Olver, Solis, Jesse Jackson Jr., Christensen, McDermott, Artur Davis, Stark, Julia Carson, Gutierrez, Payne, Fattah, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Towns, Kucinich, Lewis, Wynn, Meek, Bardallo, Honda, Serrano, Maloney, David Scott, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Becerra, Woolsey, Ford, Rangel, Velazquez"

First, that "flock" is a bunch of leftist Democrats who make most Americans happy that the Republicans won control of the House in 1994 and have kept it since.

Second, Conyers is still refusing to read Bennett's remarks in context: Bennett is an ardently pro-life Catholic who would save the life of every aborted baby, even though aborted babies are disproportionately black and blacks are disproportionately Democrat, while Conyers champions a woman's "right" to kill her unborn babies for any reason or no reason, even though black babies are disproportionately victimized by "legal abortion."

Third, Conyers is misrepresenting me, falsely stating that I accused him of "quoting Bennett our of context, by not observing that he later said it would be wrong to abort all Black fetuses."

LIAR, LIAR!

I wrote: "'The fact that Mr. Bennett later acknowledged that such abortions would be "morally reprehensible," but added again that if it was done "the crime rate would go down," is equally outrageous,' said Conyers."

Fourth, Bennett did NOT suggest "that African Americans are synonymous with crime." To claim that he did is outrageous. Whether or not Conyers likes it, the crime statistics are what they are.

Query: Is Representative Conyers trying to deflect attention from the blood, mostly black blood, on the hands, figuratively speaking, of his fellow Dems, Louisiana Governor Katheleen Blanco, a white woman who doesn't want to talk about what she did wrong but wants to lead the rebuilding of Louisiana, and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, a black man pretending he's a victim who did nothing wrong and just needs to be entrusted with billions to rebuild as he likes?

© Michael Gaynor

 

The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
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Michael Gaynor

Michael J. Gaynor, born in New York in 1949, has been practicing law in New York for more than thirty years... (more)

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