William J. Bennett

> Americans for Victory over Terrorism: Founder

> Empower America: Founder

> Project for the New American Century: Founding member

> Center for Security Policy: Adviser

Institutional Affiliations

Government Service

Corporate Connections/Business Interests

Education

Highlights & Quotes

William Bennett, a self-appointed moral compass for America, has been a key right-wing player for decades. He is the founder of a string of advocacy groups that promote conservative social policies and hawkish foreign policies, including Americans For Victory over Terrorism and Empower America.

Bennett first rose to prominence in the early 1980s when he was appointed to head the National Endowment for the Humanities, and then later -- in 1985 -- to be Secretary of Education. Both appointments surprised observers because of Bennett's seeming lack of credentials. Only 34 years old at the time of his NEH appointment (in 1981), Bennett had little academic experience and even less publishing experience. What Bennett lacked in experience, however, he made up in connections. As one historian writes, "Bennett had been director of the rightist Committee for the Free World, a body whose executive director was Midge Dector, who was a trustee of the Heritage Foundation and the wife of Commentary 's influential editor, Norman Podhoretz. ... In addition, in 1980 Bennett had been an adjunct scholar at the Heritage Foundation, and later that year had contributed to that body's 'politically prescriptive' Mandate for Leadership volume [which served as a policy blueprint for the Reagan administration]. ... Throughout the 1980s, [Bennett was also] a member of the board of directors of the New York-based Institute for Education Affairs," which was created in 1978 by Irving Kristol and William Simon. (4)

Bennett was appointed education secretary after he helped produce Heritage's Mandate for Leadership , which argued that the creation of the Education Department had been a "historic blunder, a combination of overweening federal ambition and pandering to interest groups. Still, the department exists. The question now becomes: How can it be turned into an agency of minimum nuisance? ... A suitably reformed Department of Education would resemble a three-room schoolhouse." (4)

Bennett has advocated radically conservative policies on a range of issues, including education, race, and military affairs. Regarding Bennett's stance on homosexuality, Slate reported: "Homosexuality [said Bennett] 'takes 30 years off your life.' " The average life expectancy for gay men, Bennett declared, was just 43. .Only days later, in the Nov. 24 Weekly Standard , he repeated the assertion phrased for maximum emphasis: " 'The best available research suggests that the average life span of male homosexuals is around 43 years of age. Forty-three .' (Italics his.) .Bennett got the number from Paul Cameron, a researcher well known to followers of gay controversies. . [He resigned from the University of Nebraska ] under fire from the American Psychological Association and was later formally terminated from membership following complaints about his research methods." (22)

More recently, Bennett has been harshly criticized for his gambling habits, which seem to run counter to his many moral crusades. As Joshua Green reported in the Washington Monthly , "Few vices have escaped Bennett's withering scorn. He has opined on everything from drinking to 'homosexual unions' to 'The Ricky Lake Show' to wife-swapping. There is one, however, that has largely escaped Bennett's wrath: gambling. .If Bennett hasn't spoken out more forcefully on an issue that would seem tailor-made for him, perhaps it's because he is himself a heavy gambler. . The Washington Monthly and Newsweek have learned that over the last decade Bennett has made dozens of trips to casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas, where he is a 'preferred customer' at several of them, and sources and documents provided to The Washington Monthly put his total losses at more than $8 million. .Bennett likes to be discreet. 'He'll usually call a host and let us know when he's coming,' says one source. 'We can limo him in. He prefers the high-limit room, where he's less likely to be seen and where he can play the $500-a-pull slots. He usually plays very late at night or early in the morning -- usually between midnight and 6 a.m.' . On July 12 of last year, for instance, Bennett lost $340,000 at Caesar's Boardwalk Regency in Atlantic City. And just three weeks ago, on March 29 and 30, he lost more that $500,000 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas ." (23)

Although not a member of the current Cabinet, Bennett remains a key right-wing figure, exercising his influence through a small group of conservative policy organizations that he helped form, including Empower America and Americans for Victory over Terrorism.

Bennett has written or edited several books, including The Book of Virtues and Why We Fight: Moral Clarity and the War on Terrorism.

(1) Profile: William J. Bennett http://www.empoweramerica.org/stories/storyReader$120

(2) About EMPOWER.org: William J. Bennett http://www.empower.org/bennett.htm

(3) Biographies http://www.puaf.umd.edu/Affiliates/CivicRenewal/bio.htm

(4) Philip Burch, Reagan, Bush, and Right-Wing Politics: Elites, Think Tanks, Power, and Policy, "The American Right Wing Takes Command: Key Executive Appointments ," (Greenwich, Conn.: Jai Press, 1997) pp. 281, 307-309, 362-363

(5) SmartCOP - Board of Directors http://www.smartcop.com/board.html

(6) CFAC - Who We Are http://www.goddardclaussen.com/archives/cfac/who.html

(7) Project for the New American Century http://www.newamericancentury.org

(8) Advisory Board http://www.nd.edu/~ndethics/People/Advisory%20Board/Advisory%20Board.htm

(9) AVOT: Senior Advisers http://www.avot.org

(10) Gesu School http://www.gesuschool.org/about_03.html

(11) BOV BIOS http://www.fcfe.org/bov_bios.htm

(12) The Center for Security Policy http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/index.jsp?section=static&page=nsac

(13) K12: Board of Directors http://www.k12.com/about/board.html

(14) William J. Bennett http;//www.mediatransparency.org/people/wbennett.htm

(15) Nominations, November 18, 1981 http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/resource/speeches/1981/111881d.htm

(16) 2000-2001 Marymount University Catalog http://www.marymount.edu/cat/2000/dvp.html

(17) William J. Bennett http://www.thomasaquinas.edu/news/pressroom/college_guides/isi/bennet.htm

(18) William J. Bennett http://www.ashbrook.org/events/lecture/1993/bennett.html

(19) "Appendix," Privatization of Public Education , People for the American Way Foundation, April 20, 1999 , pp. 21. http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/dfiles/file_76.pdf

(20) Nominations & Appointments, January 15, 1986 http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/resource/speeches/1986/11586c.htm

(21) Nominations, January 10, 1985 http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/resource/speeches/1985/11085b.htm

(22) Walter Olson, "William Bennett, Gays, and the Truth," slate.msn.com, December 19, 1997 http://slate.msn.com

(23) Joshua Green, "The Bookie of Virtue," Washington Monthly , June 2003 http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0306.green.html

(24) http://www.smartcop.com/home.html