Bennett's Good Works

The Washington Post ^ | Monday, May 26, 2003 | John DiIulio

[sitetest]

Recently William J. Bennett, best-selling "Book of Virtues" author, conservative commentator and Republican leader, admitted publicly that he has a vice: excessive gambling. According to published reports, over the past decade or so the former U.S. education secretary and drug czar bet several million dollars playing slot machines at Las Vegas and Atlantic City casinos. When the story broke, Bennett's critics called him a hypocrite, even though he had never spoken out against gambling or denied previous reports that he gambled. Some suggested that, because Bennett was so hard on President Bill Clinton and so outspoken on other controversial issues, he deserved harsh treatment and kicking while he was down. Now some prominent conservatives, both inside the Beltway and beyond, are suggesting that the gambling revelation will render Bennett's civic and media career kaput.

My reasons for hoping they are wrong about Bennett's future have nothing to do with partisan loyalties (I am a Democrat), little to do with policy preferences (though we often agree, we have also taken opposite positions on welfare reform, mandatory minimum drug penalties, government reform and other issues) and everything to do with personal knowledge about his character. Off and on for 15 years, I have joined the burly Irish Catholic on professional projects and witnessed the onetime philosophy professor and his wife, Elayne, contribute their time, energy and money to numerous charitable causes and civic good works. Yes, Bill Bennett was a soft touch for high-stakes slots, but let the record show he has also been a softie when it comes to helping others.

[sitetest]

Read the entire article at the link. It speaks for itself.

[sitetest]

Advance apologies if this has been previously posted. I didn't find it when searching on the original WP title.

[MaryFromMichigan]

"The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones......."

[Polycarp]

a bump and a ping

[sitetest]

Dear Tooters,

Did you read the entire article?

"The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones......."

Do you believe that the good done by directly assisting hundreds of poor children get a good and decent education will die with Bill Bennett?


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[B Knotts]

I think much of the analysis of Bennett misses the point. The reason so many people came down on Bennett so hard for hypocrisy was that he vehemently attacked pot smokers who defend their habit with the excuse that they're not hurting anyone else...yet, when Bennett was confronted with his $8 million gambling habit, he lamely offered the same excuse.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

[DeweyCA]

Critics shout "hypocrisy" at Bennett, but does his behavior negate what he was promoting? Are the points that he was stressing any less valid? I think not. In fact, his own failings maybe even point out the need for a greater need to emphasize virtue in our personal lives and in society.

[Experiment 6-2-6]

he lamely offered the same excuse.

Except, for the fact, that pot smoking is illegal, and gambling (at the establishments he frequents) ARE NOT..

[bandleader]

The"Clintonians"and their search for a"Holy Grail"(otherwise known as"Moral Relevatism")as a means of "CamoFlauge"and "Legacy ResERECTION"knows NO LIMITS!!!!!!!!!

[Buck W.]

"I think much of the analysis of Bennett misses the point. The reason so many people came down on Bennett so hard for hypocrisy was that he vehemently attacked pot smokers who defend their habit with the excuse that they're not hurting anyone else...yet, when Bennett was confronted with his $8 million gambling habit, he lamely offered the same excuse.
What's good for the goose is good for the gander. "

I am having a difficult time understanding this type of anti-Bennett backlash on FR. There IS a difference between pot and gambling. The latter is LEGAL, and the former is NOT.

[bandleader]

Obviously,I meant to say"Moral Relativism"!

[B Knotts]

The excuse "it doesn't hurt anyone else" has nothing to do with legality; it is a moral argument.

[bandleader]

I'm afraid that you have made my point!

[sitetest]

Dear B Knotts,

Without getting into a great debate about the relative advantages of marijuana use, it is the belief of many (including myself) that there is always at least one party harmed by the recreational use of marijuana: the user. It is the belief of many that there is no unharmful level of recreational use of marijuana. In many cases, the harm is small, and possibly not long-lasting. But I don't believe that there is ever no harm done to the user.

It is the belief of many (including myself) that one who finds entertainment in gambling is not necessarily harming himself. Many believe that gambling in moderation is not at all harmful to anyone, including the gambler. It is a legitimate, unharmful form of entertainment.

If one gambles more than one can afford, or if one takes up large chunks of one's time and attention for gambling, that is another issue. That is a failure of the virtue of moderation. But neither thing have been asserted in all of this. It appears that Dr. Bennett made somewhere between $50 million and $100 million during the time that he gambled $8 million, and lost perhaps $500,000 to $1,000,000.

From everything that we can determine (and I'm sure that the liberal slime who found it necessary to try to smear this good man would have let us know if it were not so), Dr. Bennett spent three or four weekends per year gambling in casinos, for what may have been as much as a hundred hours per year indulgence in this form of entertainment.

My grandmother spent more time, each year, playing bingo. At stakes which were comparable, when taken in context of income.

But even if Dr. Bennett were engaging in a vice, it is the criticism of hypocrisy that utterly misses the point. One need not be pure and perfect to exhort others to behave better. One need not be a celibate, vegetarian, vow-of-silence monk in a monastery to point out that presidents ought not commit perjury, and that we ought to try to teach our children a better moral example.

It seems that those who criticize Dr. Bennet fall into two categories: those that are convicted in their hearts of their own morally repugnant lives; and those that are so puritanical that they lose their minds thinking someone might actually be having fun.

Dr. Bennett's difficulty is that he tries to steer between the two extremes of moral degradation and unrelieved moral rigorism.


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[Afronaut]

How can you use the only lame excuse for this creep? It was legal?

If he spent 8 million on hookers in Nevada and never spoke out against prostitution, I guess you would say the same thing? If he were a Demo-rat you would nail him to the wall. <---FACT

I need the morality police in this day and age like I need a hole in my head. I laugh at the people who would defend the virtue of 8 million wasted in slots. There are all kinds of Creeps that still can help people in their lives, and that changes nothing.

I also hope that his 8 million that he dropped in a casino went to some fine cause for humanity.

[B Knotts]

I fall into neither of your categories. I would not personally castigate Mr. Bennett or a pot smoker. I myself play games of chance very occasionally, but I don't smoke marijuana.

That said, your belief that occasional pot use harms the user (which is probably true to at least some small degree) must be balanced with the belief of others that gambling is harmful to at least the gambler, if not his family.

Mr. Bennett's heart was closed to the people he was locking away for marijuana use. Should he be surprised now that many people (including many who were on his side) are turning a cold shoulder to him in his time of difficulty?

[KDD]

I am having a difficult time understanding this type of anti-Bennett backlash on FR. There IS a difference between pot and gambling. The latter is LEGAL, and the former is NOT.

Bill Clinton’s sexual affair with a twenty-one-year-old intern was not illegal either. Did you understand the outrage on FR over that?

[B Knotts]

BTW, Mr. Bennett was exactly right about Clinton...I never differed with him on that issue.

[MaryFromMichigan]

"Do you believe that the good done by directly assisting hundreds of poor children get a good and decent education will die with Bill Bennett?

Yes. In the minds of many- it's already dead.
Perhaps not deservedly, though.

[norton]

"gambling is legal, smoking pot is not..."
followed by;
"I'm afraid you've made my point"

So....we're dumping on Bennett in order to legalize pot?

It is worthwhile for some to denounce an entirely good man who drops quarters into slot machines because someone on the more libertarian side thinks a war on drugs is governmental overreaching?

It makes sense to aid and abet the clinton style left, and to risk removing a strong force for social and political betterment (or at least diluting his activity and value in those areas) to prove a point?

This is idiotic, Bennett is worth more than most of the do-gooder charities and fronts combined. Gambling as he seems to have done it is entirely legal. He's spending his own money and that's OK with me...the other money that he is said to be giving away to good causes is no less a gamble in fact.