DON'T BELIEVE BENNETT HYPE

Shall we gather at the river? William J. Bennett, the
silver-tongued voice of the religious right, is appearing at a
fund-raiser tonight for Republican senatorial hopeful Jack Ryan.

Bennett, 60, the best-selling author of such pious tomes as The Book
of Virtues, Our Sacred Honor and Moral Compass, wants to save our
souls and show us the light. He has been lamenting for years that this
nation is in moral decline. Imagine what he thinks about the town that
Billy Sunday could not shut down.

This holy roller supports a constitutional amendment that would allow
prayer in schools, deplores sex education, and says that "Christian
values" should be taught in public schools. America's children, he
declared at the 1992 GOP national convention, aren't "animals in
heat" but "thinking creations of God."

Bennett is in favor of making divorces more difficult to obtain,
denying women their reproductive freedom and imposing censorship on
Hollywood. "Cultural problems," he asserts, "require cultural
solutions."

He opposes gay rights and urges "moral criticism of homosexuality."
Bennett has made a career out of preaching intolerance and recklessly
vilifying groups and individuals.

Yet he is breathlessly touted by the Ryan campaign as "one of
America's most important, influential and respected voices on
cultural, political, and education issues"; "one of the nation's most
prominent political figures," and an "extraordinary influence on
America's political and social landscape."

In reality, his political career is a study in failure. As secretary
of education in Ronald Reagan's administration, he was the least
effective member of the Cabinet. He has a short attention span and
couldn't be bothered with the administrative details of running his
department.

Bennett is an elitist without apologies. In one of his first policy
statements, he called for a reduction in student loans, asserting that
not everyone should go to college. He holds degrees from Williams
College, the University of Texas and Harvard Law School.

He is offended by efforts to achieve diversity on our nation's college
campuses and has denounced affirmative action as "a perverse system
of numerical equality."

As chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities during
Reagan's first term, Bennett slashed funding for programs in black,
ethnic and women's studies. He also refused to comply with federal
guidelines for hiring personnel in his department. Bennett adamantly
refused to give preference to women or members of racial minorities.

As director of the Office of National Drug Policy during President
George H.W. Bush's administration, he used the war on drugs to promote
unprecedented invasions of privacy.

Drugs, he confided to Bush, are the one issue "where, I, a
conservative Republican, feel comfortable in advocating a strong
federal role."

Bennett was better at giving speeches than slowing the drug traffic
into this country.

"Government," he later wrote, "through law, discourse, and example,
can legitimize and delegitimize certain acts. In a free society, where
the people decide, leaders must understand that few things they do
matter more than speaking about the right things in the right way."

There's no doubt Bennett has the gift of gab. But he has always
shirked the hard work of shaping public policy. While peddling that
old-time religion, he preaches family values and self-control.

"We should know that too much of anything, even a good thing, may
prove to be our undoing," Bennett proclaimed in The Book of Virtues.
He added that we "need to set definite boundaries on our
appetites."

But as is often the case with con men, he doesn't apply these rules to
himself.

Bennett has listed "problem" gambling on his index of culutral
indicators. His political organization, Empower America, has fought
the expansion of casino gambling.

It turns out that this quacking scold is a compulsive gambler. Bennett
has reportedly blown $8 million in gambling dens over the last decade,
but when the Washington Monthly and Newsweek recently exposed this
addiction, Bennett insisted that he doesn't have a problem. "I've
gambled all my life," he said, "and it's never been a moral issue
with me."

Bennett, who plays video poker and slot machines, then made the
dubious claim that he has "come out pretty close to even." That's
unlikely.

The man of virtues once wrote that credibility is everything.
"Whether you're talking about a police officer, a teacher, a doctor
or car mechanic," he said, "it matters greatly whether that person's
word is good."