Conservatives defend Bennett's racism

Well, the dynamic duo, Sykes and McBride, has finally found something they disagree on.

Sykes is an apologist for Bill Bennett's remarks that the way to reduce the crime rate would be to abort all black fetuses. Yes, he really said it, on the radio.

BENNETT: ... 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.

John McAdams, a Marquette faculty member, started the ball rolling with a post on his blog claiming Planned Parenthood is guilty of saying the same thing as Bennett did. But Planned Parenthood makes no mention of race at all.

Planned Parenthood says that bringing unwanted children into a home contributes to a range of social problems, including crime. In fact, 63% of abortions are performed on white women, but McAdams uses some tortured logic to say that because black and Hispanic women are more likely to have an abortion, Planned Parenthood, not Bill Bennett, is racist. The Jesuits may like his conclusion, but it doesn't fly.

Sykes does him one better, claiming birth control champion Margaret Sanger was a racist.

Hitler was, too. But that doesn't excuse Bill Bennett. Nothing anyone else said or did changes what Bennett said. And though he tried to cover his ass by elaborating after the first racist statement came out of his mouth, it's not something that would just come out spontaneously unless it was what you really think -- and had been thinking about for some time.

McBride -- who posted before the others weighed in -- says Bennett made "an appalingly racist comment ... Conservatives should condemn this."

Bennett, among other things, heads a for-profit company that runs a virtual school in Wisconsin. Earlier post.

UPDATE: McBride sticks to her position, at great length.