Of all the "Patriot 144" personalities that I hear in the course of a day, the only one that consistantly hold my attention without making me sick to my stomach with some rabid rhetoric from the extreme right is Bill Bennett on his Morning in America show.
A former Cabinet-member of Reagan and G. H. W. Bush's, this guy has rock-solid "conservative" political views that don't exclude a Democratic opinion. In fact, it wasn't until he became Sec. of Education that he changed his party affiliation from Dem to GOP. I think the man is the "poster-child" of the Reagan Democrat.
I am particularly fascinated with his views on education. A few examples of what he espouses are:
- Competency testing for teachers
- Opening the teaching profession to knowledgeable individuals who have not graduated from "schools of education"
- Performance-based pay
- Holding educators accountable for how much children learn
- An end to tenure
- A national examination to find out exactly how much our children know
- Parental choice of schools
He has pretty strict Catholic interpretations on social justice and abortion issues (all fine with me), but he balances those with a real, honest sense of fiscal responsiblity.
Best of all... his program avoids the inflammatory name-calling and generalizations made by the likes of Hannity, Coulter, Levin and Wilkow on a minute-by-minute basis, and he is always ready to debate a caller or guest with a differing opinion, rather than simply yelling and throwing slanders across the airways.
If you haven't heard him... check him out.
2 comments:
I've heard his show several times, although not daily - he airs 5 to 8am here. I even bought a Bulova Hhack Watch (a limited edition exact replica of the WWII US Marine watch as used in the movie The Great Raid) due solely to his advertising it, his studios are the "Bullova Studios" after all.
I find one thing curious though - I remember DISTINCTLY sitting in the Grand breakroom with Bennett on the telly in a punditry capacity, and you taking the cigarette from your mouth and exclaiming, "I can honestly say, THAT man scares me." What has changed? He hasn't, not since your Grand era statement.
Honestly, I don't know what I was referring to... could you be referring to Bill Donahue, the founder of the Catholic League? They look and sound rather similar, but where Bennett is rational and reasonable in both his aproach and his debate... Donahue is not.
Donahue has faded a bit from the media over the last few years, but was a regular on CNN and FOX prior to 2004, when he was indicted for tax fraud.
THAT man made me nuts.
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