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Bill Bennett: Gambling Hit Pieces Won't Silence Me
NewsMax.com | 7/31/03 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

Posted on 07/30/2003 11:43:13 PM PDT by kattracks

Conservative ethicist Bill Bennett emerged from a self imposed two month silence on Tuesday to announce that he wasn't going to let inaccurate stories about his gambling habits planted by "people who were trying to take me out" drive him from public life.

"I'm back and I will be more outspoken than ever," Bennett told nationally syndicated radio host Sean Hannity, after accepting full responsibility for the betting brouhaha.

"What I did that was wrong was that in the last few years I started to play big money, really big money. Maybe not too much in terms of what I was making, but too much in terms of who I am. And I was not being a good example."

The leading conservative spokesman revealed that his habit had become an issue at home, telling Hannity, "It got excessive. Mrs. Bennett got on me. She was right. And this story hit and it was all out there for everyone to see."

Bennett said he was faced with the choice of either changing his behavior or changing his standards. "So, in this case, the excessive gambling is over," he pledged.

He noted, however, that there was an agenda driving the gambling story that went beyond legitimate journalism, observing, "Some of these people were trying to take me out, saying, 'You're gone, man, you're out of public life.' And I don't not accept that."

He complained also that whoever leaked his gambling records to the Newsweek and the Washington Monthly had violated his privacy.

"[My gambling] wasn't a secret. But you do not expect your financial records, whether it's at a bank, a casino or anyplace, to be displayed all over the place."

The former Bush administration drug czar added, "Las Vegas has an ad out on TV and the radio, saying, 'What happens here, stays here.' Well, not in my case. That was really a rotten thing to do."

A spokesman for Caesar's Boardwalk in Atlantic City - one of the casinos named by Newsweek and the Washington Monthly - told NewsMax in May that they take every precaution to preserve the privacy of high rollers, and that the release of Bennett's records was the subject of an internal investigation.

The two publications that hyped the gambling scandal said they were relying on "40 pages of internal casino documents." But the target of the twin hit pieces said they got more than a few factual details wrong.

"A lot of what they put out was inaccurate - about losing $8 million and all that. There's no way that happened."

Bennett said the sources of the illicitly obtained records "released information to reporters that was wrong about totals, about wins and losses. It was really an attempt to do me in."

He stressed that he wasn't swearing off all wagering, telling Hannity, "Since there will be people doing the micrometer on me, I just want to be clear. I do want to be able to bet the [Buffalo] Bills in the Super Bowl."

When Hannity closed the interview by praising Bennett for taking responsibility for the imbroglio, the ethicist quipped, "You can bet on it."

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

Media Bias



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: billbennett; catholiclist
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To: mdmathis6
The motives of the reporters is as ripe for discussion as Bennett's gambling.

However, one's transgression does not erase another's transgression.

Now, I understand you want to view Bennett in the best light possible.

But for me and I know it is a matter of perspective, I view him less favorably today than I did last year.

He always struck me as a bit too smug, but I did believe he believed what he was "preaching."
101 posted on 07/31/2003 6:57:41 AM PDT by Bluntpoint
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To: L.N. Smithee
I think the fellas a Newsweek and yourself have a lot in common.

You both only want to see evidence of the other side's foilbles.
102 posted on 07/31/2003 6:59:31 AM PDT by Bluntpoint
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To: Rodney King
It has been mentioned that a GOP US Senator is often seen having fun at craps tables in LV Nevada. We await the news of his wins and losses.
103 posted on 07/31/2003 7:09:15 AM PDT by oldironsides
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To: Bluntpoint
I think the fellas a Newsweek and yourself have a lot in common. You both only want to see evidence of the other side's foilbles.

Read this carefully.


Don't get me wrong -- I have been among the first in the pool when it came to bashing Trent Lott and Michael Savage for their diarrhea-of-the-mouth episodes, but that is because they said things that were undeniably reprehensible. I would have taken Bennett to task IF he had been preaching against the dangers of gambling, but he never has, and no one, to my knowledge, has ever faulted him for not doing so. He's NOT a "hypocrite." People have been projecting their own values and opinions onto him when they had no right to.

104 posted on 07/31/2003 7:09:50 AM PDT by L.N. Smithee (Just because I don't think like you doesn't mean I don't think for myself)
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To: Bluntpoint
I think the fellas a Newsweek and yourself have a lot in common. You both only want to see evidence of the other side's foilbles.

Read this carefully.


Don't get me wrong -- I have been among the first in the pool when it came to bashing Trent Lott and Michael Savage for their diarrhea-of-the-mouth episodes, but that is because they said things that were undeniably reprehensible. I would have taken Bennett to task IF he had been preaching against the dangers of gambling, but he never has, and no one, to my knowledge, has ever faulted him for not doing so. He's NOT a "hypocrite." People have been projecting their own values and opinions onto him when they had no right to.

105 posted on 07/31/2003 7:10:40 AM PDT by L.N. Smithee (Just because I don't think like you doesn't mean I don't think for myself)
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To: oldironsides
Do you know who?
106 posted on 07/31/2003 7:11:34 AM PDT by Rodney King (No, we can't all just get along.)
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To: eccl1212
"People who insist we "do as we say, not as we have done"

I agree. And since the article is about Bennett, I'm assuming that you have the quotes that show where Bennett insisted that we must do as he says. Perceptions aren't necessarily reality, so if you care about having credibility with critical thinkers, please provide the quotes where he "insists".

107 posted on 07/31/2003 7:12:49 AM PDT by Matchett-PI (Hey useful idiots! Why do America's enemies desperately want DemocRATS back in power?)
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To: Bluntpoint
Perhaps he'll learn to preach with a little less smugness then...but let him continue to preach!
108 posted on 07/31/2003 7:13:25 AM PDT by mdmathis6
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To: L.N. Smithee
Now that it is all in the open, let us see just how much "projecting" has been going on.

I also thought what Clinton did with Monica was reprehensible.

That is my projecting of my values.

Hollywood types thought his behavior was just fine and dandy, because it probably matched their behavior and values.
109 posted on 07/31/2003 7:14:55 AM PDT by Bluntpoint
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To: L.N. Smithee
BTTT for your #104
110 posted on 07/31/2003 7:15:07 AM PDT by Matchett-PI (Hey useful idiots! Why do America's enemies desperately want DemocRATS back in power?)
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To: thepizzalady
Gambling may not be a habit you want to emulate, but the last time I looked, gambling in a casino is legal. And why would the amount make the difference? Any money lost is relative. If you make and lose millions, how is that any different than making and losing 10's of dollars or 100's of dollars?

It is vastly different and that is the point people are missing. His $250,000 loss is what the gambling industry cares about, not the $250 losers or even the $25,000 losers. The act of high rolling is a statement of sin. It tells the recipients that their lives are best spent doing whatever it takes to keep this man coming back to our hotel. But their sin is merely greed while Bennett's is the primary sin from which all other sins are derived.

For full disclosure, I am not an expert on virtue, nor particularly on vice, but I know vice when I see it. At a younger and more impressionable age I partook of the vice in a very small way. I understood then that I could never get used to handing the towel back to the man in the restroom, and I understand now that the ultimate purpose of men is not taking my towel in the restroom.

111 posted on 07/31/2003 7:19:07 AM PDT by palmer (paid for by the "Lazamataz for Supreme Ruler" campaign.)
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To: mdmathis6
Sadly, he is years away from not having this thrown in his face when ever he speaks about the qualities of virtue.

The only ones that will ever give him a free pass are "lock steppers" like Hannity, who can be so intellectually dishonest depending on the political philosphy of the transgressor.
112 posted on 07/31/2003 7:19:28 AM PDT by Bluntpoint
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To: palmer
You focus on the supposed Perks that Bennett was accustomed to vs the granny who lost 350 dollars. How do you know he was handed towels all the time or treated defferentillay. The local tour busses to Atlantic City often tout, "be treated like a millionaire" type trips to Atlantic City as a means for the Casino's there to drum up business.

Gambling is gambling, whether we call it high stakes poster or Stock market speculation. I don't see any-where or have heard anything that Bill Bennett sees himself as morally superior to any-body else except in your paranoic descriptions of him!
113 posted on 07/31/2003 7:23:22 AM PDT by mdmathis6
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To: Bluntpoint
I also thought what Clinton did with Monica was reprehensible. That is my projecting of my values.

Clinton cultivated an image as a loving, doting husband in order to get into the White House.

Clinton contritely admitted to "causing pain in his marriage" in that famous 60 Minutes interview that addressed Gennifer Flowers' tapes and other allegations of womanizing. The message was crystal clear: 'I'm not like that any more.' While there may have been fooling around at the Governor's Mansion, we didn't have to worry about that sort of thing happening in the White House, not with the lovely Hillary by his side. No way, those days were over.

But they weren't, were they?

Nice try.

114 posted on 07/31/2003 7:25:22 AM PDT by L.N. Smithee (Just because I don't think like you doesn't mean I don't think for myself)
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To: Bluntpoint
They were throwing things in his face even when the gambling issue wasn't an issue. His stance on Virtues has made a huge impact on many people and this infuriates those who would like to destroy American goodness and its power upon which it is based.

Jesus had stuff thrown in his face...and he was perfect.

The fact is we don't naturally like to be "good" and even the best of us will chafe at just criticism....it's just that the best of us in seeking the highest good, will accept just criticism..and "love the person for it" as it says in Proverbs.
115 posted on 07/31/2003 7:30:40 AM PDT by mdmathis6
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To: mdmathis6
High rolling has only one purpose: to be recognized as the man with the money. I suppose the small gambler could each be given a name tag as they get off the bus, but those folks are there to spend their $350 for a day's entertainment, and all the parties know that. If Bennett seriously wants to demonstrate he has no high rolling problem, then let him take the bus to Atlantic City with $350 and no credit.
116 posted on 07/31/2003 7:32:04 AM PDT by palmer (paid for by the "Lazamataz for Supreme Ruler" campaign.)
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To: Bluntpoint; All
You know what...this gambling issue and the attempt to bury Bennett with it is the same type of thing happening with the "16 words" from Bush's State of the Union speech. They(Liberals) would like to take evrything that Bush is, and define him thru the lens of the "16" words, get Americans whipped into a frenzy regarding his "lie", get him impeached or force him to resign and then have him tried for war crimes.

Let's not fall into that trap with Bill Bennett too!
117 posted on 07/31/2003 7:36:25 AM PDT by mdmathis6
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To: L.N. Smithee
I take offense at Bennett's behavior.

You take offense at my offense.

Why don't we just leave it at that.

118 posted on 07/31/2003 7:38:45 AM PDT by Bluntpoint
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To: palmer
I just want him to demonstrate that he'll stay out of the gambling halls like he told his wife he would..

Doing what his concerned wife asks regarding this problem...a true sign of repentant humility!
119 posted on 07/31/2003 7:39:18 AM PDT by mdmathis6
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To: mdmathis6
And lets not forget that Bennett baited the trap.
120 posted on 07/31/2003 7:39:44 AM PDT by Bluntpoint
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