Another trip to the well of spin

Bill Bennett, self-styled paragon of virtue and gambling addict, made his ill-advised (to say the least) comment that "you could abort every black baby and the crime rate would go down" two days ago.

While most normal people would say "I said something stupid, it doesn't reflect my actual views, but I apologize," most normal people aren't inner-circle GOP millionaires. So Bennett took the usual steps of inner-circle GOP millionaires.

Step 1: I was misquoted. (Untrue)

Step 2: I was taken out of context. (Actually, no. Not as far as the actual criticism goes.)

Step 3: I was actually referring to what my ideological foe had said-- he's the racist! (This is what the Media Matters article debunks, and it comes down to the defining dichotomy of this administration-- either Bennett read the article and he's incompetent, or he didn't read the article and he's lying. Because the article says the exact opposite of what he claims.)

Step 4: "Chappaquidick!"

Step 5: (Coming soon!) I'm the victim of a liberal media witch hunt.

The one word to remember is smokescreen. Deflect criticism, distract from the actual issue, and divert attention to other people's faults.