CNN has Bennett under fire for remarks on blacks, crime.

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.

The Comments……. in answering a caller’s question, took issue with the hypothesis put forth in a recent book that one reason crime is down is that abortion is up.

“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. ”

He went on to call that “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.”

Senator Harry Reid and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi at a news conference yesterday condemning Secretary Bennett.

Reid, D-Nev., said he was “appalled by Mr. Bennett’s remarks” and called on him “to issue an immediate apology not only to African Americans but to the nation.”

Rep. Raum Emanuel, D-Ill., said in a statement, “At the very time our country yearns for national unity in the wake of hurricane Katrina, these comments reflect a spirit of hate and division.”

“This is precisely the kind of insensitive, hurtful and ignorant rhetoric that Americans have grown tired of,” said Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Illinois.

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.

“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.”

And the President knuckled under and issued a statement.

The White House on Friday criticized former Education Secretary William Bennett for remarks linking the crime rate and the abortion of black babies.

“The president believes the comments were not appropriate,” White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.

Flap was listening to the show when Secreatary Bennett addressed the caller. There were no racist connotations or implications in the discussion. This is much ado about nothing.

The President’s comments are well……..DUMB!

An ABC news video of the Flap is here.

William Bennett’s response on the Hannity and Colmes televison show last night is here.

BENNETT: Sure. Well, the context was a radio show that I was doing yesterday, and the topic was abortion and we were talking about bad arguments in regard to abortion. A caller suggested he was opposed to abortion because he said if there were more babies there would be, eventually, more tax payers and a larger GNP, a smaller deficit. I said you want to be careful with that kind of argument because someone could postulate a situation where child’s not likely to be a productive taxpayer. I said, arguments in which you take something that’s far out, like the GNP and try to connect it up with abortion are tricky. I said make the case of abortion on the basis of life and protecting life. I said abortion is invoked in another way; you could make an argument that if you wanted to lower the crime rate, you saw the quote; you could practice abortion in very large numbers. You could do it in the black community; you could do it in other places. This is, by the way, the subject of a book for economics by a professor at Yale.

I said, however, if you were to practice that, widespread abortion in the black community or any other community, it would be ridiculous, impossible, and I appreciate you putting it on the screen, morally reprehensible. So I think morally reprehensible, when that is included in the quote makes it perfectly clear what my position is. A number of the people whom you have cited as condemning me have not made the inclusion of that remark, and so they make it seem, Alan, as if I am supporting such a monstrous idea, which of course I don’t…..

Read the entire transcript here.

So, should Bill Bennett apologize?

NOPE!

Bill Bennett’s page is here for more.