Bill Bennett: Gambling Hit Pieces Won't Silence Me

NewsMax.com | 7/31/03 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[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

[Bluntpoint]

Everyone seems to want to redefine words to fit their agenda nowadays.

I believe your agenda would change if we were discussing Mario Cuomo's gambling and not Bennetts.

Me thinks you got a little too much "emotionally and politically" invested in Bennett not being judged by his actions.

[Rodney King]

Here's another thought experiment: walk into Vegas hotel with $25,000. Ok, now walk into the same hotel with $250,000.

Sure. But for 5K you can get your ass kissed at the best restaurants and hotels in NY. He's addicted to gambling.

[Helms]

Bennet went to Williams College. I agree w/ you and wonder if the Bennett boys/brothers need to retire from the public eye. For a guy who took moralizing and virtue to an industry
level, he really needs to make way for others.
Disgusting to see him on a mea culpa tour.

[Bluntpoint]

McDonalds always sends a limo out for my family.

We drop about 75.00 dollars there every year!

[palmer]

You do the $5K NY fling, you are still nobody. You do it 50 times and you are somebody.

[Bluntpoint]

For a guy who took moralizing and virtue to an industry level

That fact and that fact alone, is why he is the topic of discussion. If Brit Hume or some other conservative did this, we would give our opinions on the behavior and move on.

[Rodney King]

Anybody who has gambled a lot and claims to have "come out about even" is a liar. Anybody who doesn't understand that you simply can't win over time at the casinos is an idiot.

[Helms]

Interesting that Bill was secretly excessive:
booze food and gambling. There are more than second acts in public life.

[mdmathis6]

Time will tell us about his repentance....mean-while let us conservatives support him with prayers and letters while encouraging him to stay repentant and true to his stated goal of no more high stakes gambling(asking him to not bet on the super-bowl might be a little too much to ask, just joking...LOL;})

If he does this...then he comes out stronger than ever, and becomes a beacon of hope..even to addicted gamblers..Now wouldn't that just "frost" 'ol Scratch himself!

[Bluntpoint]

His defenders would say his gambling was not excessive, he used booze for medicinal reasons only and he was not a glutton but had a slow metabolism.

[Helms]

Makes you wonder if in some psychological/subliminally compensatory way
he stocked the shelves of Barnes and Noble and
Borders to cover his exceesses(and fund them to boot). Come to think of it, both Bennet brothers were high rollers during the Clinton years. Pause for thought.

[palmer]

Bennett was not "trapped" into indulging in Vanity. He invested a great deal of time and energy into his sinning and will need an even greater investment to get out.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

I once saw Bennett speak at DeSales University, and I also have one of his books. I won't be buying anymore of his books or going to his appearances.

He's been siting at slot machines for hours all night, when the odds are heavily against him, and his wife doesn't like it. He might be brilliant, but he's not too smart. IMO, he's hooked and should consider going to Gambler's Anon.

[Diverdogz]

“Over 10 years, I’d say I’ve come out pretty close to even," says Bennett.

Call it a lie, call it an untruth, a mischaracterization, an understatement, an evasive answer, whatever.

Just remember, he thinks you are stupid. Stupid enough to believe him when he says that he came out "pretty close to even". Anyone who believes that claim is dumber that a bag of hammers.

[L.N. Smithee]

I believe your agenda would change if we were discussing Mario Cuomo's gambling and not Bennetts.

Read my reply at post #46. I mentioned the circumstances under which I would think this was a big deal. I know nothing about Mario Cuomo's gambling problem if he has one.

Me thinks you got a little too much "emotionally and politically" invested in Bennett not being judged by his actions.

I am not a Bennett devotee by any means. I have one book that he wrote -- Our Sacred Honor, about the religious writings of the founding fathers -- and I bought that off the clearance table at Borders.

What frustrates me is that so many durn many of you have fallen for this Stupid Left Trick. This hit piece was nothing more than Newsweek saying, "Now all you people who like Bill Bennett have a reason to hate him as much as I do."

[Bluntpoint]

What frustrates me is that so many durn many of you have fallen for this Stupid Left Trick.

I don't care what the motives are for Newsweek reporting this story. Apparently, the story was true. If the press reported that my kids were being molested by a neighbor, information obtained through an illegal wire tap, I would not spend too much soul searching about the method of discovery.

[mdmathis6]

It would affect my judgment too if I thought about 8 million dollars as one big pile lost in a compressed amount of time. But spread out over a decade in which scores of millions more were coming in from other sources, it becomes insignificant. I'll bet he lost a bundle in the stock market crash! (A lot of respectable people including frumpy grand-mothers speculate in the stock market...but we don't call that gambling)

What those "expose" articles didn't say are what he actually "won" over ten years. Did they specify lossess more than wins, or just the lossess. Bennett says he broke roughly even, and that the numbers sited by the "2 reporters" are wrong. I mean did he win say 6 million but lost 8 million. Then he really would have "lost 2 million". Let's say he broke even as he says....he certainly lost 50 per cent of the time over ten years 8 million. He won 50 per cent of the time and got the 8 million back. I would be more critical of him wasting his time then gambling. Technically, it would be true he lost 8 million over ten years. But what did he win? I don't see that written any where. He must have done well enough that he was considered a good customer and had a credit line with the casino's.

The reporters and the venue in which the story broke(Newsweek) are also more suspect in my book. Are the financial papers they got a hold of detailing his casino life really accurate...has Bennett seen the info the reporters supposedly got?

Bennett may be in denial right now about the amounts spent on gambling, but he has never made a hypocritical stand against gambling. He simply never saw it as personal problem and never saw it as a potential chink in his armor regarding the epousal of public virtue.

The real problem with many...and Liberal anti-Christian anti moral types love to take advantage of this quirk in people, is that they tend to choak on gnats while swallowing camels when it comes to faults. William Bennett...GAMBLED, that's it game over..the sky is falling, lets just all be Bill Clintonesque wanna be's(cigar any-one?)

[L.N. Smithee]

I don't care what the motives are for Newsweek reporting this story. Apparently, the story was true. If the press reported that my kids were being molested by a neighbor, information obtained through an illegal wire tap, I would not spend too much soul searching about the method of discovery.

And Bennett being a gambler is comparable to that, in your mind? Tell me you're kidding.

[Bluntpoint]

No. I am just saying you are dwelling far too much on the ethics of this disclosure and not enough on what it disclosed.

I'm sorry, but your focus on the process and technicalites of this matter and not on the underlying problem unearthed sounds Clintonesque.

[Rodney King]

I agree with you in the sense that if I was out in public I would not by downing the man. What he did is trivial compared to what the Dems do to our country every day. I still, however, question the judgement of anybody who gambles that much.