William Bennett Defends Comment on Abortion and Crime

So why immediately bring up race when discussing crime rates? "There was a lot of discussion about race and crime in New Orleans," Bennett said. "There was discussion – a lot of it wrong – but nevertheless, media jumping on stories about looting and shooting and gangs and roving gangs and so on.

"There's no question this is on our minds," Bennett said. "What I do on our show is talk about things that people are thinking … we don't hesitate to talk about things that are touchy."

Bennett said, "I'm sorry if people are hurt, I really am. But we can't say this is an area of American life (and) public policy that we're not allowed to talk about – race and crime."

Robert George, an African-American, Republican editorial writer for the New York Post, agrees that Bennett's comments were not meant as racist. But he worries they feed into stereotypes of Republicans as insensitive. "His overall point about not making broad sociological claims and so forth, that was a legitimate point," George said. "But it seems to me someone with Bennett's intelligence … should know better the impact of his words and sort of thinking these things through before he speaks."

The blunt-spoken Bennett has ruffled feathers before, most recently in 2003 for revelations that despite his best-selling books about virtue and values, he is a high-rolling preferred customer at Las Vegas and Atlantic City casinos.

In light of accusations that the Bush administration should have been more sensitive to black victims of Hurricane Katrina, a Republican official told ABC News that Bennett's comments were "probably as poorly timed as they were politically incorrect."

ABC News' Avery Miller, Karen Travers and Toni L. Wilson contributed to this report.