Pubdate: Thu, 08 May 2003
Source: Economist, The (UK)
Copyright: 2003 The Economist Newspaper Limited
Contact:  http://www.economist.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/132
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Bill+Bennett

HOLY HIGH-ROLLER

Laugh At Bill Bennett, The Erstwhile Virtuecrat; But Don't Forget His Message

WHO needs satire when you have the social conservatives? These guardians of 
public morality mercilessly persecuted Bill Clinton for his zipper problem. 
But then it turned out that many of his persecutors were no better.

Newt Gingrich deserted his sick wife for his girlfriend. Bob Livingston had 
to give up the speakership after extra-marital "indiscretions". Even 
gentlemanly old Henry Hyde had a zipper problem of his own. Now Bill 
Bennett, the capo di tutti capi of the virtuecrats, has been caught, if not 
with his trousers down, then at least with his hand glued to the slot 
machines of Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

Mr Bennett, serving in Republican administrations as both education 
secretary and drug tsar, has scolded the nation's youth.

Bob Dole seriously considered him as a running mate in 1996. His jeremiads 
against moral decline have made him a fixture of the chat shows and the 
lecture circuit (where he can command $50,000 a speech). His "Book of 
Virtues" and "The Death of Outrage" have sold in the millions.

Mr Bennett may have ignored his own prescriptions, according to reports in 
the Washington Monthly and Newsweek. See also Focus on the Family.

Hardly the sort of man, then, whom you would expect to find standing next 
to you in some windowless room on the Strip. But reports in both the 
Washington Monthly and Newsweek show that, over the past ten years, the 
former drug tsar has lost some $8m gambling.

He sometimes spent several hundred thousand dollars in an evening, mostly 
on slot machines.

In one two-month period he wired more than $1.4m to cover his losses.

Mr Bennett was accorded the lofty status of a "high-roller" in both Las 
Vegas and Atlantic City -- and was even given free room and board at one of 
the Bellagio's swanky villas.

At first, Mr Bennett tried to defend himself on the grounds that he has 
never spoken out against gambling. "I've gambled all my life and it's never 
been a moral issue with me," he told the Washington Monthly. "I view it as 
drinking.

If you can't handle it, don't do it." Gambling is neither illegal nor 
immoral, he argued; why, he even started his gambling career playing church 
bingo!

Bingo to that. You don't need to be a recently retired Democratic president 
to wonder if there isn't something just a little bit hypocritical about a 
man making millions out of preaching virtue and then feeding the proceeds 
into slot machines.

Nobody has banged on more about the importance of "character". To Mr 
Bennett, Mr Clinton's peccadillos were not just wrong in themselves; they 
revealed systemic flaws in his personality.

In his books, Mr Bennett pours contempt on libertarian nonsense about 
"harmless vices". His writings are full of dark warnings about the way that 
"instant gratification" and "unrestrained personal liberty" erode social norms.

He lambasted America's bohemian elites for setting a bad example for the 
rest of society. Harvard graduates might be able to handle a bit of pot; 
but their example encouraged inner-city kids to turn into crack addicts.

But isn't all this true of gambling?

The Mafia once used Las Vegas to recycle drug money.

Many of the habituis of casinos are also given to the instant gratification 
of alcohol, nicotine and commercial sex. (In 2000 Nevada had one arrest for 
every 478 residents for prostitution or "commercial vice"; neighbouring 
California only had one such arrest for every 2,731 residents.) Many of Mr 
Bennett's allies on the religious right argue that addiction to gambling 
can produce a whole house of horrors.

James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family, an organisation that distributes 
Mr Bennett's tapes, argues that there is "a direct link between problem and 
pathological gambling and divorce, child abuse, domestic violence, 
bankruptcy, crime and suicide". Mr Bennett's own "Index of Leading Cultural 
Indicators" includes "problem gambling" as a negative indicator of cultural 
health.

The author of "The Death of Outrage" eventually produced a very Clintonian 
apology -- saying that he had done nothing wrong and promising not to do it 
again. He has "complied with all laws on reporting wins and losses", he 
says nobly.

Mr Bennett admits that he has "done too much gambling". Therefore, "my 
gambling days are over".

Betcha hadn't thought of this one

Few things are funnier than a moraliser who is caught out. Yet after 
laughing at Mr Bennett, it is still worth re-examining his message, which 
is not so amusing. The issues he raises in his books -- the breakdown of 
the family, the absence of trust, even sexual promiscuity -- are important, 
and deserve better.

The scorn now being heaped on Mr Bennett is a little similar to that once 
heaved on to another apparent conservative buffoon, Dan Quayle, when he 
attacked Murphy Brown, a character in a popular sit-com who decided to have 
a baby out of wedlock.

My, how America laughed at the dumb vice-president and his attempts to 
lecture the country about personal morality.

But as the Atlantic Monthly pointed out a little later, Mr Quayle had a 
point: all sorts of social statistics show that single motherhood is not 
something to be recommended lightly.

Of course, one does not have to bring a moralising edge to discussions 
about character.

People like the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan and even Mr Clinton (who 
talked a lot about personal responsibility) have managed to push morality 
into politics without appearing to condemn people.

But Mr Bennett's more strident diatribes also made a point.

Too many Americans are prepared to blame social ills on anything but 
character. It is surely better that buffoons, and even hypocrites, bring up 
these issues than that such questions are ignored.

As for Mr Bennett and his virtue empire, its fate is uncertain. So far, 
social conservatives have been strikingly supportive of their fallen brother.

And the great American public loves nothing more than a sinner who repents.

Mr Bennett will no doubt be able to write a bestseller on how to beat the 
betting demon -- and this time the money he makes might spend a little more 
time fructifying in his own bank account.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom