Booking Bennett

NRO ^ | 5/5/2003 | Jonah Goldberg

[moneyrunner]

An excellent summary of the Bennett Gambling controversy. I hope all you moralizers examine your own souls.

[borkrules]

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

[mabelkitty]

I hope Las Vegas loses money - big time. I've yet to hear anybody from that gambling mecca strike out about the LEGALITY of gambling, and how they were going to pull out the stops to find out how the information was stolen (as that is what happened) and prosecute to the fullest extent.

You have to understand that this information is also coupled with credit card numbers, bank information, driver's license, home address, etc. This was not merely a "he gambled alot" breach.

If he hadn't signed up for the Slot Card, nobody would have been the wiser.

[Cold Heat]

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

I sure hope so.....................

This gambling BS has been ridiculous.

[JohnGalt]

Who are you folks kidding?

Bennett has been revealed as a fraud and rightfully so. He hires ghostwriters to write his speeches and books and then claims them to be original works. He smokes three packs a day, but moralizes about 'drugs.' He was Drug Czar during the crack explosion; test scores headed down every year he was the Education Czar.

He's been a fraud since he came into the Reagan Administration, when he attempted to cover up the fact that he was a Democrat. He is a phony and while this is a strange story to bust him on, I am perplexed at the number of his defenders.

[borkrules]

No one's trying to "kid" anyone.

You anti-WOD people will hate Bennett to the end of time and this non-story is tailor made for you to excercise some of that rage.

I think Bennett's positions on the WOD are overblown and I don't agree with all of what he says.

But as the article says, he's a big sloppy Irish Catholic conservative that has pointed folks in the right direction in other areas.

And I think "hypocrisy" is waaaaay down the list of "sins". In fact, the elevation of hypocrisy into the pantheon of unforgivable offenses is one of vice's greatest tactics in the defeat of virtue. Take that to the bank. It's made it acceptable to reject the good in pursuit of the unattainable perfect.

[Cacophonous]

He is a phony and while this is a strange story to bust him on, I am perplexed at the number of his defenders.

Don't be perplexed. This crowd would defend Hilary Clinton, Saddam Hussein and Ho Chi Minh if they called themselves Republicans. You are asking for introspection from automatons.

And you are right on about Bill "Just Call me God" Bennett.

[Blue Screen of Death]

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

What are the odds on that?

[Cacophonous]

What is hypocrisy but a lie? How far down on the list of sins is lying. I know it is somewhere in the Top 10.

[JohnGalt]

The story is not that he is a hypocrite-- that is for the left's moral anarchists consumption.

The story is just one to go along with dozens that as a man, he is a phony.

[goldstategop]

Yup. And why are liberals so mad at what Bill Bennett does? Its not like they believe in right and wrong in the first place and secondly they could care less about virtue.

[borkrules]

That's a load of bravo sierra. For two reasons:

1. Bill B. never said, "don't gamble". So the charge of hyprocrisy isn't even well laid here.

2. Hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue. Turn that into a sin of it's own, and the result, since the 60's is for people to avoid the damning charge of "hypocrisy" by turning their vices into virtues.

I see the same screen names taking after Bill B: the WOD fundamentalists, for whom all is invested in the pursuit of making weed legal (I don't oppose that, just the fanatic zeal); and the Church Ladies.

Politics makes strange bedfellows indeed.

[AbsoluteJustice]

Can someone clear something up for me? Is this the same Bill Bennett on Fox News?

[radioman]

It's the final word on the subject, IMO

No, there's plenty more Liberal mud slinging on the way.

Bill has no credibility with many of us who are old enough to remember when Bill was the doper Liberal boyfriend of Janis Joplin.

How he ever reached the position he has is a complete mystery to many of us.

Maybe now some of us will realize that many of our own are just as full of BS as the Liberals.

[borkrules]

The story is just one to go along with dozens that as a man, he is a phony.

That's a strong charge. Why is he a "phony" for dropping some of his dough into a slot machine?

Please try and make your point without strained analogies to the WOD.

[onedoug]

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

[Cacophonous]

So hypocrisy is a good thing? Wonder what Bill Bennett says about hypocrisy in his tomes...

I see the same screen names taking after Bill B: the WOD fundamentalists, for whom all is invested in the pursuit of making weed legal (I don't oppose that, just the fanatic zeal); and the Church Ladies.

Since I am not a Bennett fan, I assume you lump me into one of these groups. First, which one? And second, based on my past postings (review them if you wish), how do I qualify as either a Church Lady or as one who wants to legalize pot?

[goldstategop]

The liberals are "outing" Bennett to justify and excuse Billy Jeff's crimes by cheapening them through a dose of good old-fashioned moral equivalence and just plain lying. That's the reason they see Bennett's private life as fair game. I tell you all, what's really sickening is the same people who insist we keep our nose out of the presidential felon's private affairs are the same people who insist we ought to censure a decent man for not being a complete saint in his private life. How's that for hypocrisy? Liberals, thy name is legion.

[borkrules]

What about David Horowitz, just to name one other former leftist/liberal that saw the light and now is one of the right's street fighters?

David and Bill Bennett get into the arena and throw haymakers at the left, while the GOP is chock-full of Marquis de Queensbury "warriors" who routinely get their noses bloodied by democrats without such ethical restraints.

We need fighters like Bill B. and Horowitz and I gets me dander up when the purists of any ilk get to wanting to throw valued allies under the bus at the first sign of trouble.

[borkrules]

Before I answer any of your questions, why don't you point out where Bennett has been a "hypocrite".

Mmmmkay?