Bad Bet by Bill Bennett

The Washington Post ^ | May 5, 2003 | Michael Kinsley

[Paladin2b]

Sinners have long cherished the fantasy that William Bennett, the virtue magnate, might be among our number. The news over the weekend -- that Bennett's $50,000 sermons and bestselling moral instruction manuals have financed a multimillion-dollar gambling habit -- has lit a lamp of happiness in even the darkest hearts. As the joyous word spread, crack flowed like water through inner-city streets, family court judges began handing out free divorces, and children lit bonfires of "The Book of Virtues," "More Virtuous Virtues," "Who Cheesed My Virtue?" "Moral Tails: Virtue for Dogs," etc. And cynics everywhere thought, for just a moment: Maybe there is a God after all.

[Paleo Conservative]

due to his social infection-facilitated Parkinson's.

Could you please supply links regarding this remark. I have never read about any link between "social diseases" and Parkinson's disease.

[ambrose]

so you wish fatal diseases on people because they don't share your political views? sickening.

[B Knotts]

Well, distaste of Michael Kinsley aside, it's hard to argue with the points he makes in the article.

Bill Bennett has lost any moral authority he thought he had.

I personally don't have any problem with his gambling, as it's his business. But Bill Bennett has a problem with other people's personal behavior, which is none of his business.

As the saying goes:

Turnabout is fair play.

[modern_orthodox]

Reading this column made me realize how much I look forward to the not-too-far-off day when Michael Kinsley is a drooling, incontinent, quivering mass of jello due to his social infection-facilitated Parkinson's.

gosh, thats mean...what would bill bennett think?

[B Knotts]

Incidentally, I find it extremely distasteful that you wish disease on another persion.

[Dilly]

You're worse than Kinsey is. He seems delighted in someone's (possible) political embarassment. You want to delight in someone's fatal disease. Shame on you.

[RAT Patrol]

LOL!

Gambling is a legal but unattractive vice. Sounds like Bennett knows this because he's decided his gambling days are over. The left meant to harm him, but in the long run they've done him a favor. He's quitting. That makes NOTHING he's ever said wrong. Truth is truth regardless of the messenger.

Good for Bennett for deciding to quit gambling. I'm proud of him.

[RAT Patrol]

At least the disease delight is not printed in the Washington Post.

[Zevonismymuse]

I look forward to the not-too-far-off day when Michael Kinsley is a drooling, incontinent, quivering mass of jello due to his social infection-facilitated Parkinson's.

Wow! That is an extremely cruel comment. While I normally disagree with Michael Kinsley, I think he made a good case against Bennett's conduct.

I will not be like Kinsley and those other Clinton apologists by defending the indefensible.

[george wythe]

His gambling never hurt anyone else. This is, of course, the classic libertarian standard of permissible behavior, and I think it's a good one.

...

He [Bennett] wants to put marijuana smokers in jail.

If a conservative author takes a trip to Holland four times a year and smokes Dutch pot legally, is that conservative a good role model?

I personally have little problem with conservatives who either smoke pot and gamble where it's legal to conduct such activities.

I also suspect that most social conservatives of the fundamentalist tradition will have a hard time accepting a vice because it's legal in Nevada or Canada or Holland.

[M. Thatcher]

he's decided his gambling days are over.

Source?

I know his WIFE has declared his gambling days over, but that's NOT the same as his having "decided," as anyone who's married knows.

[glorgau]

Musings about a moralist from a moral leper.

[sinkspur]

I personally don't have any problem with his gambling, as it's his business. But Bill Bennett has a problem with other people's personal behavior, which is none of his business.

That's about the best summation of this whole deal.

If you're going to condemn behavior, you'd best be squeaky clean yourself.

[Semper]

Good for Bennett for deciding to quit gambling. I'm proud of him.

You might want to wait until he actually does quit - for good - before giving him a pass.

Also, it is really disturbing to learn someone who acts as though they have intellectual prowess can be so mentally feeble as to spend large amounts of money (and therefore time) doing something as foolish as playing slot machines (the worst odds in gambling). There is virtually no skill involved and over time it is inevitable that you will lose - and lose more than at any other "game" in gambling, percentage wise.

[Oldie]

Exactly right. Bennett's hallmark has always been frowning disapproval delivered from the heights of moral rectitude.

Come to think of it, most people whose main thing is this sort of disapproval of others, are eventually proven to be phonies. Remember Jimmy Swaggart and the hooker as well as Dr. Laura's homewrecking and nude photos?

[lonestar]

If you're going to condemn behavior, you'd best be squeaky clean yourself.

Who is squeaky clean?

[Paladin2b]

OKAY, I flew off the handle when I wished such ill on Kinsley. I apologize for the rudeness and respectfuilly ask the moderator to pull the thread and to forgive my indiscretion. It's just that seeing this really creepy RAT gloating over it had me seeing red. REALLY RED. Sorry once more.

[nvcdl]

Bennett was a major anti-gun influence in the first Bush Administration. I'm not suprised he is a big phoney.

I wonder if he used Empower America funds on betting - seems hard to believe he had $8 million in personal funds to blow.

[F16Fighter]

"Bill Bennett has lost any moral authority he thought he had."

Funny, but I don't recall Bill Bennett claiming to be Jesus Christ in absentia.

Some of you people are in a real quandary -- can ANYONE dare tell you that you've just done wrong?

Moreover, if NO ONE is worthy of dispensing advice on virtue and morality, then does it's possibility even exist? Or are "virtue and morality" merely relative terms?

BTW, here's a favorite definitive oxymoronic term for those who see "virtue" and "morality" in relative terms -- "Honor among thieves."