No one does Schadenfreude like Kinsley does Schadenfreude. You get the feeling reading this column that it has been at least a couple decades in the formation. And all the more lethal for it. I’m amazed that no one at National Review or the Weekly Standard has even the mildest criticism to offer. But here’s a religious-right conservative weighing in at the American Spectator:
Several of the regulars on National Review’s weblog “The Corner” questioned whether Bennett’s gambling could even be called a vice as it was in the Newsweek story. The Weekly Standard’s Jonathan V. Last posted an article over the weekend referring to the controversy as “silly.” Their comments reflect the instinctive desire to protect Bennett because he has been the most articulate and successful mass-market spokesman for social conservatism during the past two decades.
But trying to whitewash the unseemly public vision of Bill Bennett sitting before a slot machine for three hours at a time to unwind after a speech before a family values group earlier in the evening is the wrong thing to do. No matter how you slice it, gambling millions of dollars is a betrayal of Bennett’s entire public career.
Still, this is the exception among social conservatives so far. They are a disciplined political bunch, don’t you think?
The Dish 