Posted on 05/06/2003 7:30:39 AM PDT by mikeb704
The Left is having a field day with revelations that Bill Bennett’s been betting ‘em up, mainly on slot machines and video poker, all the time that he’s counseled Americans on moral issues.
Slate’s always-gracious Michael Kinsley is slightly disappointed that William the Virtuous wasn’t nailed for more egregious behavior. Setting aside his regret, Kinsley cheerfully concludes: "It will definitely do. Bill Bennett has been exposed as a humbug artist who ought to be pelted off the public stage if he lacks the decency to slink quietly away, as he is constantly calling on others to do."
The usual suspects will kick around Bennett like that, but he’ll survive. He’s overcome his gambling infatuation, immediately and permanently. The cure: Mrs. William Bennett.
Bill’s wife denies he’s lost $8 million over the last decade, as claimed in Newsweek. She declares the family has no financial troubles. She says her husband isn’t addicted. But she also flatly states that his wagering days are behind him.
Wouldn’t you have loved to be a fly on the wall when Mr. and Mrs. Bennett started discussing the disclosure of Bill’s affinity for gambling? I don’t blame the guy for trying to ease matters by averring that he didn’t lose anywhere near that much. Why, the more he thought about it, the more he realized he just about broke even.
Maybe he actually does believe he broke even, even after losing more than a million in just two months. It’s human nature to magnify the winnings and downplay the losses.
What I’d like to know is why the casino employees who fed the information about Bennett to the media did it. Casinos generally love people like the former education secretary. Known in the business by the technical term "loser," such folks are often treated to luxury suites, limousine service, and extravagant meals, all at no cost and all in the expectation that they’ll keep dropping big bucks.
Professional Pontificators like Bill Bennett should recognize that their personal life is subject to great scrutiny, particularly by those about whom they’ve pontificated. Even small p professional pontificators like me realize that. So it’s time I made this admission.
I once shared Bennett’s vice. Years ago I bet on horses, football, baseball, basketball, girls’ junior high archery tournaments, just about anything.
I was a sucker for six-hit bets in which you pick three baseball players and, if among them they get six hits on the same day, you win $10 for $2. Other guys had photographs of their family in their wallets; I was carting around pictures of Rod Carew, Pete Rose, and Steve Garvey.
I dropped subscriptions to newsmagazines. Who had time to read them when I was wolfing down the solid advice offered in tout sheets like Winning Points and Mort Olshan’s The Gold Sheet, also known as "The American Sportsman’s Bible?"
To the casual observer, it may have seemed that I was losing a lot, what with the writing of checks on credit cards and shuffling balances from account to account, but I sincerely know that, at worst, I was breaking even. More or less.
Tuesdays during football season were often the roughest day of the week. A not uncommon scenario: I’d lose on the college games on Saturday, then try to make up for it by getting down heavier than usual on the pro action on Sunday. If that ended up being a blowout, I’d try to double up and catch up on Monday night’s game, which often ran until close to midnight. If things didn’t go as hoped, the next day I’d be a broken man, both physically and financially.
Obviously, I was never in Bennett’s league. My losses weren’t in the millions, not even in the thousands. Then again, I wasn’t making $50,000 a gig speechifying like Virtuous Bill.
My gambling career came to an end one ignominious Sunday in December. My sports accountant called with the lines on the afternoon’s games. He made a huge mistake, offering a team plus 17 points when the real line was minus 17 points. Jumping on the error with an unusually big bet, I still lost. That brought about the realization that wagering wasn’t a good thing for some people. Mainly me.
With the slots and video poker games in his past, Bill Bennett will have even more time to do what he does best, Pontificate with a capital p. Some day, he’ll know with certainty that the disclosure of his vice was really for the best. I’ll bet on it.
If he had an affair, then I would be calling him a hypocrite, but he didnt...
Maybe he will give it to Republican candidates to help them beat Democrats. That will show them.
True. However this man is known for his 'Book of Virtues'. He's going to loose a lot of ground with many who think that this money (whether it was 8 million or not) could have been used in a more 'virtuous' manner. It's not hypocrisy, as the left states, because he never claimed gambling to be immoral. However, it will be seen as extremely poor judgement by many.
That's a coincidence. Rarely do I hear of anyone who loses money out there either. Perhaps the casinos are really humanitarian organizations in disguise.
I believe that's true. A woman behind every great man, one way or the other.
This I'm sure is the Michael Kinsley who expressed his great disappointment over the various lapses of ethics, honesty, morals and decency during the Clinton Administration. I'm sure Mr. Kinsley continues to wait for Mr. Clinton, Mrs. Clinton, Roger Clinton, and all their various henchmen to "slink quietly away" from the public scene that they sullied with more cr*p, corruption, lying, law-breaking, drug-dealing, woman-abusing, perjuring, illegal-contributing, covering-up, bribing, witness-tampering, fund-abscombing, criminal-pardoning, FBI-file-threatening... well, you probably see where I'm going.
With the odds set at 51% casino and 49% player it's highly likely that he broke even, or at least lost only 2% of what he bet.
So what is the beef?
I know that many non-denominational christians believe gambling to be immoral. Many of these are readers of his books. I know that many are not viewing this favorably concerning their future purchases of his material (books, www.k12.com, etc). His recent statements that he is going to quit gambling will do a lot toward their feelings concerning him and his material.
Where do the casinos have only a 51 percent win rate? And, even at two percent, at the rate Bill was wagering, it could still be a huge sum.
Hope doesnt appear nude on the cover of the New York Times Book review. [shudder]
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