Saturday, October 01, 2005

Not Appropriate

"Not appropriate." These were the strongest words your White House could find in reaction to your William J. Bennett's heartwarming remark about black babies: that "you could abort every black baby in this country and your crime rate would go down"? And look how he qualified the statement: that "it would be a morally reprehensible thing to do"! Not undesirable, perhaps. But morally reprehensible. Abortion, after all, is morally reprehensible even for lesser folks than our good white selves. And where's the qualification for his charming suggestion that black babies are all potential criminals? This from the voice of the man who presumes to preach to us loudly about the debasement of our moral values!

Okay, so is it simply "not appropriate" that he should use his public pulpit for such utterances? Or is it "morally reprehensible"? Or slimy political pandering? Or gross insensitivity? Or slanderous calumny? Or unadulterated racism? Or wrong-headed rhetoric? I mean, surely you could have gone just a wee bit further toward expressing outrage, Bush? No? Or was such a mealy-mouthed, mild reproof "appropriate" to the racist stench that emanates from your Bennett's thinking process, simply because he later pleads a lack of bad intention? Would anything stronger have threatened to alienate your celebrated "base"?

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