I’d say that whatever moral high horse Bill Bennett sat on has just bucked him off, trampled him, and bitch-slapped him after the revelation that he has lost millions gambling. His response? “I play fairly high stakes. I adhere to the law. I don’t play the ‘milk money.’ I don’t put my family at risk, and I don’t owe anyone anything.” This rings very hollow coming from the man who wrote the morality screeds The Book of Virtues, The Broken Hearth: Reversing the Moral Collapse of the American Family, The Death of Outrage: Bill Clinton and the Assault on American Ideals, and Why We Fight: Moral Clarity and the War on Terrorism and who has preached his brand of conservative morality for years. His comparison of gambling to alcoholism is especially despicable and telling: “I view it as drinking. If you can’t handle it, don’t do it.”
Well, I’ve got some news for you, Bill: just because you’ve made millions of dollars through your so-called “morality” books and speeches doesn’t mean you can “handle it.” You’re a hypocritical gambling addict, and you’ve just lost any shred of credibility you once had. I am happy to admit that I have a major case of schadenfreude here, because he deserves every bit of fallout he gets over this.
Oh, and I can’t take credit for “The Bookie Of Virtue;” I got it from The Washington Monthly, although I so wish I had thought of it first.
