{"id":126,"date":"2003-05-06T08:12:33","date_gmt":"2003-05-06T13:12:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/126.html"},"modified":"2003-05-06T08:12:33","modified_gmt":"2003-05-06T13:12:33","slug":"bill-bennett-to-stop-gambling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/bill-bennett-to-stop-gambling\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Bennett to stop gambling"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the interests of wrapping up the Bill Bennett gambling story, I wanted to point out that America’s virtue czar has said he will no longer gamble<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a written statement issued by the conservative advocacy group he helped to create, Empower America, Bennett said he will no longer be a high-stakes gambler.<\/p>\n

“It is true that I have gambled large sums of money. I have also complied with all laws on reporting wins and losses,” Bennett said. “Nevertheless, I have done too much gambling, and this is not an example I wish to set. Therefore, my gambling days are over.”<\/p>\n

The announcement will probably end the controversy, and if so, it was the right move from a public relations stand point.<\/p>\n

At the risk of sounding insensitive, though, I wonder whether the move was sincere or just a way to get the media to back off. I am by no means an expert on addiction, but from what I understand it’s not always easy to quit a vice cold turkey. If Bennett has a genuine gambling problem, it might be difficult to simply “turn off” the desire to gamble. This prompted a Carpetbagger friend, let’s call him Morbo, to say this means Bennett’s critics “get to have more fun four months from now when he’s spotted in an Indian casino in Wisconsin bleary-eyed at 3 a.m. playing keno.” Something to look forward to?<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Bennett has put his reputation on the line by promising to stop gambling. For his sake, I hope things work out for him. There has been no word, however, on whether or not Bennett will stop being a self-righteous, condescending, smug moralist. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the interests of wrapping up the Bill Bennett gambling story, I wanted to point out that America’s virtue czar has said he will no longer gamble. In a written statement issued by the conservative advocacy group he helped to create, Empower America, Bennett said he will no longer be a high-stakes gambler. “It is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}