MORALIST TRUMPED BY A SECRET VICE AND COPPING IT IN SPADES

When a famous figure in America finds him or herself involved in a personal
scandal, few commentators make it to the microphone faster than William
Bennett, the country's leading public moralist.

Previously an education secretary and drug tsar under Republican
presidents, Mr Bennett - now head of a conservative think tank - has
inveighed for years against everything from drunkenness to promiscuity, the
moral failings of Bill Clinton, the moral failings of liberals, and the
permissiveness of contemporary culture.

His consistently bestselling books bear titles such as The Book of Virtues,
The Death of Outrage, Our Sacred Honour, The Children's Treasury of
Virtues, and Moral Compass: Stories For a Life's Journey.

Now there is a fresh outbreak of vice for him to campaign against: the
epidemic of Schadenfreude that has greeted the revelation that he is an
inveterate gambler who has lost millions of dollars in casinos in the past
10 years, playing poker machines into the small hours.

Documents obtained by the magazines Newsweek and Washington Monthly show
that he is a regular at casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, is a
"preferred customer" at several of them, and has lost more than $US8million
($12.5million) in the process.

He tried to keep his habit a secret: typed across his records at one casino
are the words: "No contact at res or biz!"

Bennett, contacted by the magazines, acknowledged his gambling, but not his
losses. "Over 10 years I'd say I've come out pretty close to even," he said.

A casino source, hearing the claim that he had profited, "just laughed",
the magazines reported. It was a response backed by reports that Mr Bennett
enjoyed limousines and luxury hotel rooms at the casinos' expense, a
privilege normally given to those from whom the house profits.

Mr Bennett maintained that his forceful condemnation of the sins of society
was not incompatible with his gambling.

"It's never been a moral issue with me," he said."I liked church bingo
growing up. I've been a poker player . I view it as drinking. If you can't
handle it, don't do it."

There is, indeed, no record of him speaking out against gambling. But that,
the commentator Michael Kinsley argued in Slate magazine, "doesn't show
that Bennett is not a hypocrite".

"It just shows that he's not a complete idiot. Working his way down the
list of other people's pleasures, weaknesses, and uses of American freedom,
he just happened to skip over his own. How convenient."

Mr Bennett later issued a statement, in which he said he was quitting
gambling. "It is true that I have gambled large sums of money," he said on
Monday. "I have also complied with all laws on reporting wins and losses.
Nevertheless, I have done too much gambling, and this is not an example I
wish to set. Therefore my gambling days are over."