Suicide Pact

It almost seems like the loudest of the loudmouths on the right, whether in the political arena or talk radio, are in a race to the bottom to shed whatever's left of their credibility. I'm not sure how the author of "The Book of Virtue," who would rent out private rooms in Vegas to play SLOT MACHINES, and lost millions doing so, had any credibility to begin with. But now even the President is distancing himself from this latest bit of wingnuttery:

WASHINGTON (AP) - 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.

Bennett, on his radio show, "Morning in America," was answering a caller's question when he 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," said Bennett, author of "The Book of Virtues."

He went on to call that "an impossible, ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down."

Bennett's trying to spin this that he was misquoted, but the fact that he regards as a simple truth that aborting black babies would lower the crime rate plays into what I was talking about yesterday. The problem with race in this country has never left the main stage; it was just poorly hidden behind the scenery.

What's almost as crazy is the caller Bennett was repsonding to. He reiterated a piece of far-right insanity that I've previously talked about here, that abortion is to blame for the shortfall in Social Security, because it reduces the work force (and therefore the tax base). I'm sure abortion has also contributed to the destruction of the Amazon rain forest, since less carbon dioxide producers are subsequently located in the Western Hemisphere. The notion actually is that babies are nothing more than worker bees, whose sweat equity is the key to making us all fat and happy in our retirement. Can anyone say "Soylent Green"? Maybe abortion is to blame for world famines!

Conservative rhetoric appears to be reaching its reductio ad absurdum, as America is starting to see the man behind the curtain.