Bet on sloth to win every time

If one were to read the Daily Pilot’s Joseph N. Bell, or any of the

other predictable responses by the left to former secretary of

Education and best-selling author Bill Bennett’s out-of control video

poker gambling habit, one would think that this sort of thing doesn’t

happen every day.

Sadly, it does. The leaders in our nation, whether they’re public

servants or private citizens, Republicans or Democrats, have shown

over and over again just how easy it is to take capitalism and

freedom for granted. Enron and WorldCom, now MCI, easily come to

mind.

First, let’s dismiss any comparison to what former President Bill

Clinton did and what former moral leader Bennett has done, as this

seems to be the showdown for moral judgment. In this challenge,

Clinton wins the scoundrel contest hands down.

Both men are guilty of severe moral lapses. But in Clinton’s case,

he broke the law not once but dozens of times, mostly by obstructing

justice, withholding evidence and flat out lying under oath. These

have been documented in a bipartisan study. Bennett, on the other

hand is neither a public servant, a liar or a criminal.

Bennett’s gambling did not violate any laws. And if he is to be

believed, he never gambled money he could not afford to lose. While

that does not make him a crook, it does paint the picture of a very

weak man.

But the primary difference between the two men, and between

Bennett and anyone else who has been caught with their hand that many

times on the lever of a video poker machine, is that Bennett owned

his errors. When confronted with the evidence of his losses, he did

not deny it or make excuses, he said it was true. He did qualify it

by pointing out that he could afford to lose $8 million, but then

said that the behavior was wrong and that he would stop.

Clinton, on the other hand, lied repeatedly when caught and broke

some serious laws over and over.

That Bennett came clean does not excuse his behavior and it

certainly removes any credibility as someone who should be telling

others how to live their lives. Bennett’s crime, you see, is sloth,

which is fast becoming an American way of life.

Bennett’s sloth is astounding not only because of the size of his

gambling, but because of the astonishing waste of hard-earned money.

I mean, the guy blew $8 million on video poker, known far and wide as

one of the house’s best sucker bets. With $8 million, any of us could

have done so much to help others -- and most of us would. But Bennett

threw it down a coin slot.

Joe Bell must have enjoyed judging Bennett. After all, Bennett was

a man who judged others and was now himself being judged.

But when Bell had a chance to tell former school board member Jim

Ferryman to quit his post after Ferryman’s drunk driving conviction

last year, he passed, choosing instead to act as Ferryman’s

mouthpiece when Ferryman should have been talking to this newspaper

and apologizing to the parents and students in our district.

Therein lies the problem with the moral relativists. Murder is not

murder if the murderer was raised in a home that did not mirror the

Cleavers.

Degenerate behavior in the White House and lying under oath is OK

as long as you’re big on human rights and the economy is humming

along. And driving drunk on the streets of the city and endangering

lives along the way is fine as long as you sort of sound like you’re

sorry, even though you’re only sorry you got caught.

Wrong. It’s all bad behavior no matter who does it. And as long as

we continue to excuse it by rationalizing it or remaining quiet, it

will go on, whether it’s a president, a school board member, a

Democrat or a Republican.

My belief, as I’ve stated before, is not that we judge too much,

but that we judge too little. It is precisely because we do not speak

up that we have fallen so far down in our standards. And if you need

any evidence of our fall, spend some time looking objectively at the

content of our media or the behavior of our children. Too much bad

behavior is too acceptable because we are too timid to speak up.

I can’t shake this image of an overweight, red-faced Bill Bennett

sitting in a tall swivel chair in front of a video poker machine, a

white plastic coin cup in one hand and an “I’m working a hot machine”

T-shirt on his back while he steadily gives back 18% of his bets to

the house.

For Pete’s sake, Joe, invite Bennett to your next game.

* STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and freelance writer.

Readers may leave a message for him on the Daily Pilot hotline at

(949) 642-6086.