Booking Bennett

NRO ^ | 5/5/2003 | Jonah Goldberg

[Cacophonous]

Michael Savage and David Horowitz admit - and frequently use as examples - their liberal pasts. I've never heard Bennett do this. He's always passed himself off the center of virtue.

[JohnGalt]

As a man, he is a phony, and this is but one of serveral stories that backs up the charge.

[Cacophonous]

Michael Savage and David Horowitz admit - and frequently use as examples - their liberal pasts. I've never heard Bennett do this. He's always passed himself off the center of virtue.

[Cacophonous]

I am a Conservative, and as a Conservative I believe Bill has the right to practice any vice he desires.

Not to be picky or contentious, but I think is more a Libertarian stance. Maybe that is really Bennett's philosophy?

[Austin Willard Wright]

He never said "don't gamble?" Wrong. Empower America opposes the extension of casino gambling. I guess that the poor who can't afford to travel are not to be trusted eh?

[radioman]

As I hope to be worthy of God's love and redemption, I personally don't gamble

Are you alive?
Life itself is a gamble!

[Nick Danger]

It's the final word on the subject, IMO.

I don't think it is. There's another aspect to this, and Jonah hasn't touched on it.

This "expose" is not a single data point. It is on a line, and the line is becoming more apparent every time the Press Democrat adds another point to it.

This isn't about Bennett. It's about torching Republicans, one after another, by a highly partisan press corps that thinks it can sneak this stuff into the public dialog as "news" without being identified themselves as hatchet-men for a craven Democratic Party.

Maybe at one time they could do that. They're entirely too obvious about it now. The public got a big wake-up call during the war about just how partisan the press really is. Even people who dismissed claims of "media bias" were shocked by the blatant anti-Administration, anti-Republican partisanship of supposedly 'objective' media figures.

No one is being fooled by this anymore. These hyperventilating attacks on The Bad Republican Of The Week are not perceived to be "news" anymore. Everybody knows they're not news. They're manufactured hype of the same sort that brought us "news" of quagmires and bad plans all during the war. The press is the armored division of the Democratic Party. Attacking Republicans is what they do.

Let them throw their spears at the Republican Of The Week. All they are doing is putting greater distance between the media and the public, tagging themselves as partisan hacks instead of honest purveyors of events, and sowing tremendous mistrust of everything they say.

The media is destroying itself with the public. That is at least as big a story as whatever Santorum, or Bennett, or whoever is in the barrel next week, did.

[AbsoluteJustice]

I will give you that reasoning.

[Mr. Mojo]

Could he have been trying to discreetly (as discreetly as possible) wash money? He did say he made money (or broke even) over the years...

He's either A) lying, B) extraordinarily lucky (uncommonly so), or C) washing money . It's difficult to say which one I'd bet on.

[dfwgator]

As I hope to be worthy of God's love and redemption, I personally don't gamble

What do you think investing in stocks is, especially these days?

[William McKinley]

Las Vegas. What happens here, stays here.

Unless you happen to be a famous conservative

[William McKinley]

He has?

If he has always done this, then it should not be hard for you to find a direct quotation where he passes himself off as the center of virtue. It should be easy, as a matter of fact.

So why don't you go and do so. I am sure that such a citation would add much to this debate.

Go ahead.

[AbsoluteJustice]

This author is chipping at nothing illegal here. What Bill does LEGALLY is his own business. If he gambles millions does it make him any more less a man politically than anyone else? Heck no....Has he done anything illegal. Noone has reported as such. So why is this author reaching for straws....Almost like they did to Bush before the election. This duck don't hunt. This author is blowing a bunch of somke up peoples A$$essssss

[mr.pink]

It's difficult to say which one I'd bet on.

If I was as virtuous as Bill, I'd place a C-note on "C". ;o)

[cgk]

Excellent article. Thank you for posting it.

[JohnGalt]

I am charging him with being a phony and you are coming back with legalism that frankly, strengthen my point.

[clintonh8r]

Jonah nails it.

[AbsoluteJustice]

OMG what makes his gambling a phony?? Tell me please where do you take from the article that his gambling has anything to do with him being phony?? How do you equate the 2?? Now I will give you this you probably know WAY MORE than I do about Bennet as I have only heard him on H&C but to equate this article with him being phony is reaching.

[cgk]

but who the hell plays the slots at $500 a pull-- a man who did not work for his money

A man who has the money to lose and who plays a GAME for entertainment's sake? Even non-gamblers know you can't win in the long term at slots and video poker.

[JohnGalt]

See post 27 ; this is but one of many stories and I concede that its just opportunism to bust him for his gambling at this time but that's how it goes sometime.