BILL BENNETT

I was delighted he got nailed by all this.

If you haven’t heard, this is what he said on his radio show:

"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."

Conservatives have jumped to his defense. Here is what Jonah Goldberg writes:

Bennett was sincere when he said that aborting all black babies simply to lower the crime rate would be "ridiculous, and morally reprehensible." He could have just as easily said to the caller: "Hey, look, we could save a lot of money on skyrocketing education costs if only we aborted the mentally impaired and learning disabled. But you know what? Ends cannot justify the means of murdering the unborn." It would be silly to waste a lot of time trying to rebut him by saying, "Well, actually you wouldn't save that much money."

The former philosophy professor picked a hypothetical that he thought would make the horror of such utilitarianism obvious to everybody. Murder a whole generation just to lower the crime rate? Disgusting!

Bennett's real mistake was in thinking people would be mature enough to get it.

I have immense respect for Goldberg, but he misses the point by a country mile. Bennett’s real mistake was in saying such a stupid thing.

Conservatives are making a huge mistake in trying to defend the indefensible. Bennett is an embarrassment and will always be an embarrassment.

He is one of those addictive personalities who are looked to for leadership.

What a joke.

He wrote a guide for morality while gambling away vast sums on money.

He is a proponent of censuring the airwaves. What a hypocrite.

Now he gets his comeuppance.

This is an American tradition.

Like Al Capone.

They couldn’t get him for murder so they got him for tax evasion.

Now this distinguished gentleman gets the reputation as a racist.

I don’t really care if he is or not.

He was guilty of trying to stick his nose into programming.

It’s the American way.