re: Because it's just dumb
FYI, William Bennett is a former Secretary of Education. He's a private citizen now, with all the same rights and privileges of dumbness granted to us all. Sure, he has a bully pulpit he built himself, and it's looking rather rickety right now.
Haven't heard anything about the other items you listed -- except, the ET/ID thing isn't new. When the campaign to alter how science is taught in the Kansas public schools first reared its silly head, someone was quoted in an attempt to wave off allegations of fundamentalist religiousity with the idea that "it could have been aliens".
Excellent quote from Paine!