William John Bennett (born
July 31, 1943) is an American
conservative pundit, politician, and political theorist. He served as
United States
Secretary of Education from 1985 to 1988. He also held the post
of
Director
of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (or "
Drug Czar") under
George H. W. Bush.
Bennett
was born in Brooklyn
but later
moved to Washington,
D.C.
, where he attended Gonzaga College
High School
. He graduated from Williams College, where he was a member of
The Kappa Alpha Society, and went on to earn a Ph.D. from the University of
Texas at Austin
in Political Philosophy. He also has a J.D. from Harvard Law School
.
From 1976
to 1981 he was the executive director of the National Humanities Center, a
private research facility in North Carolina
. In 1981 President
Ronald Reagan appointed him to head the
National Endowment
for the Humanities, where he served until Reagan appointed him
Secretary of Education in 1985. It was in 1986 that Bennett
switched from the
Democratic to the
Republican party. Bennett
resigned from this post in 1988, and later that year was appointed
to the post of Director of the
Office of National Drug
Control Policy by President
George
H. W. Bush. He was confirmed by the
Senate in a 97-2 vote.
Bennett is a member of the National Security Advisory Council of
the
Center for Security
Policy (CSP). He was co-director of
Empower America and was a Distinguished
Fellow in Cultural Policy Studies at the
Heritage Foundation.
Long active in
United States Republican
Party politics, he is now an author, speaker, and, since
April 5 2004, the host
of the weekday radio program Morning in America on the Dallas
, Texas
-based
Salem Communications. In
addition to his radio show, he is the Washington Fellow of the
Claremont Institute. Further
work at the
Claremont Institute
includes his role as Chairman of
Americans for Victory Over Terrorism (AVOT). He
is also a political analyst for
CNN.
Bennett and his wife, Elayne, have two sons, John and Joseph.
Elayne is the President and Founder of
Best
Friends Foundation, a nationwide
abstinence-based program for adolescents. He is
the brother of prominent Washington attorney
Robert S. Bennett.
Political viewpoints
Bennett tends to take a conservative position on
affirmative action,
school vouchers, curriculum reform, and
religion in education. As Education Secretary, he asked colleges to
better enforce drug laws, supported a classical education rooted in
Western culture, and derided
multicultural courses. He frequently
criticized schools for low standards.
In fact, in 1988, he
called the Chicago
public
school system "the worst in the nation."
Bennett has tangled with the educational establishment (which he
dubbed "the blob" or bloated educational bureaucracy) over the
following reform measures, which he espoused:
- Competency testing for teachers
- Opening the teaching profession to knowledgeable individuals
who have not graduated from "schools of education"
- Performance-based pay
- Holding educators accountable for how much children learn
- A national examination to find out exactly how much our
children know
- Parental choice of schools
Bennett is a staunch supporter of the
War
on Drugs and has been criticized for his views on the issue. On
a television show, he said that a viewer's suggestion of
beheading drug dealers would be "morally
plausible."
Bennett is an opponent of
same-sex
marriage.
In 1995, he teamed up with
C.
Delores Tucker to create
advertising to target Time Warner's lack of regulation of
gangsta rap and its glorification of violence
and denigration of women.
Bennett is a member of the Project for the New
American Century (PNAC) and was one of the signers of the
January 26, 1998 PNAC
Letter sent to President Bill Clinton
urging Clinton to remove Iraqi
leader
Saddam Hussein from
power.
Books
Bennett's book
America: The Last
Best Hope (Volume I): From the Age of Discovery to a World at
War.
Bennett's best-known written work may be
The Book
of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories (1993),
which he edited; he has also authored and edited ten other books,
including
The Children’s Book of Virtues (which inspired
an
animated
television series) and
The Death of Outrage: Bill Clinton and the Assault on American
Ideals (1998).
Other books:
- The American Patriot's Almanac: Daily Readings on
America (2008 with John Cribb)
- America: The Last Best Hope (Volume II): From a World at
War to the Triumph of Freedom (2007)
- America: The Last Best Hope (Volume I): From the Age of
Discovery to a World at War (2006)
- Why We Fight: Moral Clarity and the War on Terrorism
(2003)
- The Broken Hearth: Reversing the Moral Collapse of the
American Family (2001)
- The Educated Child: A Parent's Guide from Preschool through
Eighth Grade (1999)
- Our Sacred Honor (1997, compilation of writings by the
Founding Fathers)
- Body Count: Moral Poverty...and How to Win America's War
Against Crime and Drugs (1996)
- Moral Compass: Stories for a Life's Journey
(1995)
- The De-Valuing of America: The Fight for Our Culture and
Our Children (1992)
Writings
Bennett writes for
National
Review Online,
National
Review and
Commentary.
Radio and television programs
Bennett is currently the host of
Morning in
America, a nationally syndicated radio program produced and
distributed by
Salem
Communications. The show airs live weekdays from 6 to 9 a.m.
Eastern Time; it is one of the only syndicated conservative talk
shows in the morning
drive time slot.
However, its clearances are limited due to a preference for local
shows in this slot, and the show gets most of its clearances on
Salem-owned outlets. Morning in America is also carried on Sirius
Satellite Radio, on Channel 144, also known as The Patriot
Channel
In 2008, Bennett became the host of a
CNN weekly
talk show,
Beyond the Politics. It is unknown whether this
will be a limited run or a permanent addition.
Controversies
Gambling
In 2003 it became publicly known that Bennett was a high-stakes
gambler who reportedly had lost millions of
dollars in
Las Vegas. As
a
Catholic, Bennett was not
prohibited from gambling, but some felt it conflicted with his
public image as a leading voice for conservative morals. Criticism
elevated in the wake of Bennett's publication,
The Book of Virtues, in which he
argued for self-discipline—an attribute often at odds with problem
gambling. Bennett and
Empower
America, the organization he co-founded and headed at the time,
opposed the extension of casino gambling in the states.
Bennett never said he had a
problem
with gambling and has maintained that his habit did not put himself
or his family in any financial jeopardy. After Bennett's gambling
became public, he said that he did not believe that his habit set a
good example, that he had "done too much gambling" over the years,
and that his "gambling days are over. "We are financially solvent,"
his wife Elayne told the
USA Today. "All
our bills are paid." She added that his gambling days are over.
"He's never going again," she said.
Several months later, Bennett qualified his position, saying "So,
in this case, the excessive gambling is over." He explained that
"Since there will be people doing the micrometer on me, I just want
to be clear: I do want to be able to bet the
Buffalo Bills in the
Super Bowl."
Radio show abortion comment
On September 28, 2005, in a discussion on Bennett's
Morning in
America radio show, a caller to the show proposed the idea
that the
Social
Security system might be solvent today if abortion hadn't been
permitted following the
Roe v. Wade decision. He said aborting all
African-American babies "would be an impossible, ridiculous, and
morally reprehensible thing to do, but the crime rate would go
down."Subsequently,
Senate
Minority Leader Harry Reid and
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, as well as civil rights groups,
condemned Bennett's statements and demanded an apology. President
George W. Bush said Bennett's statements were "not
appropriate."
Bennett responded to the criticism saying, in part:
- A thought experiment about public policy, on national radio,
should not have received the condemnations it has. Anyone paying
attention to this debate should be offended by those who have
selectively quoted me, distorted my meaning, and taken out of
context the dialog I engaged in this week. Such distortions from
'leaders' of organizations and parties is a disgrace not only to
the organizations and institutions they serve, but to the First
Amendment.
See also
References
- Schools and Education
- (The De-Valuing Of America, page 44)
- (on a June 15th, 1989 appearance on Larry King
Live)
- The
Indy Voice..."Be the change you want to see in the world." »
Project New American Century
- Sirius Channel Listing
- Are Bill Bennett’s gambling days over or not? - The
Carpetbagger Report
- Morning in America Transcript and recording. September 28, 2005
- White House Condemns Bennett's Remark
New York
Times, October 1, 2005.
- Transcripts: CNN Saturday Morning News [1]. October 1, 2005
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