Get a load of Dennis Prager on Bennett. Attn all "decent" progressives...

[cloudythescribbler]

I've heard of the best defense being a good offense, but Prager really takes the cake. Prager describes the "decent" left as those who should stand up and defend poor Bennett against being libelled by those who say he is a racist. I mean, hey, even the Repugs, who stand by their man through indictment or Downing Street Memo and such, are covering their rearends faster than it takes John Roberts to start dodging a question.


I will add that I myself made the error, on first skimming through the full passage of Bennett's talk show from Media Matters, of thinking and even saying (though I think for technical reasons, the post, at another site, failed) that Bennett had advocated the genocide that he flippantly hypothesized. OK, he didn't quite do that and basically progressives haven't (with some unfortunate exceptions) quite accused him of saying that outright. But that's not good enough for "Partisan Pit Bull" Prager -- "using the human mind to defend the hardest right position imaginable with as much indignance imaginable". The thing that strikes me is that Prager -- who has described Gore as a 'hater' for his slightly less wooden comments in recent years, and insisted that opposing gay marriage isn't antigay, it's pro-child -- is somehow seen as more respectable than the likes of the more overtly bombastic Limbaugh and others. Yet Prager, like Bennett, represent what the mainstream of the Repuglican Party has become.





Here's the link and article:
Enjoy.

http://realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/com-10_4_05_DP.html


October 4, 2005

The Bennett Libel Divides the Decent Left from the Indecent Left
By Dennis Prager



A few years ago, when Hillary Clinton was attacked as anti-Semitic, I wrote a piece for The Wall Street Journal defending her against the charge. As a Jew, an author of a book on anti-Semitism and a conservative talk show host, I had credibility to do so.



It is time now for people with integrity on the Left -- and liberal opinion pages -- to show their integrity and defend Bill Bennett against the libel of being a racist who advocated the abortion of all black babies.



For make no mistake: This is as pure a character issue as one can imagine. Bill Bennett is not a racist and said nothing that even remotely came close to advocating the abortion of all black babies. This is the dividing line between the decent and the indecent on the Left. The indecent make these charges; the decent will defend him against them. It's as simple as that.

What happened is easy to summarize. In response to a caller who said that America "lost revenue from the people who have been aborted in the last 30 years," Bennett made the point that one cannot argue against abortion by pointing out anything theoretically positive that could come from either allowing or outlawing abortion. For example, he went on to say, "You could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." And he immediately added, for the sake of those who might distort his meaning, that aborting all black babies would be "impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible."


But talk show host Ed Schultz, whose syndicated radio show is aired on liberal Air America, heard these remarks. He alerted fellow leftist David Brock, who then put the transcript of the Bennett dialogue on his website.



The Left and the world's news media picked up the dialogue and then announced that Bill Bennett had advocated the abortion of all black babies.



This lie is as intentional as it is complete. Sometimes lies contain a kernel of truth; this one has none. In fact, the irony is that if Bennett's social policies were followed, no black babies would ever have been aborted; they are aborted in great numbers thanks to left-wing social policies.



On his show, Ed Schultz said the following:


"Racism is not a virtue; and this is the guy who wrote the book on virtues!"



"The Christian right in this country considers abortion murder; this is not about abortion -- this is about extermination."


" . . . He's out there advocating the murder of all black babies so that we can bring down crime."



And finally, Schultz compared how Bennett views blacks to the way Nazis viewed Jews.



Leaders of the Democratic Party, such as Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, have demanded Bennett apologize, and some demanded that the Salem Radio Network fire him. (In the interest of full disclosure, Salem also syndicates my national radio show.) Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said, "I'm not even going to comment on something that disgusting." And Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-NJ, called Bennett's comments "reprehensible and racist," and announced he would introduce a resolution in the Senate condemning the comments.



The president of the NAACP declared: "In 2005, there is no place for the kind of racist statement made by Bennett."



Huffington Post blogger Bob Cesca wrote: "What he seemed to imply was that all black babies will one day grow up to become criminals."



Because of the controversy, Bennett postponed his scheduled speech at the University of Cincinnati. The university's College Democrats president told the Cincinnati Enquirer: "I think it's horrible to say that an entire race of people shouldn't have been born."



Newsday columnist Ellis Henican wrote that Bennett "is quickly getting famous for a bold new approach to cutting crime. Abort the black babies!"



The lead sentences in the Austin American-Statesman editorial on the issue read: "Aborting black children is an effective way to reduce the crime rate. We're not surprised that kind of racist drivel is being peddled over the public airways, but we are stunned by who is doing the peddling: William Bennett."



Taking their cues from the American left, the world's news media now reports the Bennett libel as news.



For example, The Hindu, India's national newspaper, reports that "United States President George W. Bush has distanced himself from comments made by a leading Republican crusader on moral values who declared that one way to reduce the crime rate in the U.S. would be to 'abort black babies.'"



And the headline in the British newspaper The Guardian read: "Abort all black babies and cut crime, says Republican."



Now you know how the combination of incompetence, leftism and sensationalism drives the world's news media.



Here is a chance to find out if your liberal brother-in-law is a leftist without integrity or simply a decent guy with different values. Just ask him, "Will you condemn the libel of Bill Bennett?"



©2005 Creators Syndicate

[longship]

1. Mr. Bennett is a public figure, and a political operative.

If he does not like the fact that he is held accountable for the things that he says in public, then I suggest he take up knitting for a living.

I have no sympathy with Mr. Bennett and give no credence to this article.

on edit: And Dennis Prager is a political hack, as well.

[cloudythescribbler]

5. yes, but it's amazing how people like Prager have widespread credibility

It comes from getting a lot of media "shine" -- eg on Charles Miller.
(and realclearpolitics itself). If you have an authentic progressive that the establishment sees no benefit in -- well then the controlled media "shine" is reduced to zero (or asymptotic) and all other supposed freedoms count for naught either, and all the liberal protestations in the world are just that, and no one dares lift a finger.

There is a barometer of how level the playing field is in American politics, how much of a 'free market' the free marketplace of ideas is.

[AntiCoup2K4]

2. Three things immediately come to mind

1) While Bennett is NOT an advocate of abortion, his statement WAS indeed racist, merely on the basis that it blames crime on blacks.

2) Ed Schultz is NOT affiliated with Air America Radio

3) Dennis Prager is a useless neocon hack.

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

3. Most sensible and clear-thinking people know full well

that Bill Bennett doesn't advocate genocide against black babies. Some idiots have been idiots, but most of us, left or right, take Bennett at his word. The problem is, the underlying argument of the rest of what he said. Why did he automatically jump to black babies? Bennett is bound by the lie the blacks commit more crimes. He's not the only one. Another point: I think Al Franken pointed this out the other day, but Bennett is complaining about being taken out of context. This from a guy who has made a career of doing exactly that.

[cloudythescribbler]

6. I'm not so sure where Bennett's heart is -- but yes, he did cover his ass

[Fridays Child]

4. He has to lie to prop up his baseless argument.

"In fact, the irony is that if Bennett's social policies were followed, no black babies would ever have been aborted; they are aborted in great numbers thanks to left-wing social policies." (emphasis added)

Oh, really? Black babies are aborted in great numbers? Thanks to left-wing social policies?

First, babies aren't aborted. Fetuses are. Second, pro-choicers come from both sides of the political spectrum. And third, by saying that blacks have abortions in great numbers, Prager only proves that he will never get it because he can't see past the end of his own bigoted nose.


I suppose it's true that there are none so blind as those who will not see.

[MissMarple]

7. AND, I don't believe black babies are aborted more than white babies.

What an ill informed idiot he is. That doesn't even make any sense. How do these people even get air time?

...Don't answer that. It was rhetorical. :)