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.