I don't understand what the big deal is. The news that Bennett gambles big-time isn't new. In 1996 Margaret Carlson reported that Bennett won $60,000 in a single outing in Las Vegas. Of course being old news wouldn't matter if it was a serious charge. But legal gambling is, well, legal.

Ok, in 2001, I won almost the same amount. Does that make me a bad person? I, like Bennett, only gamble with funds which are affordable to me. I, like Bennett, have no moral compunction about gambling. Am I a hypocrite?

ANOTHER UPDATE: I can't leave it alone. Jonah Goldberg bolsters my last point:

But the biggest reason I find these Bennett articles so troublesome is what they reveal about the kind of society we're building. Hypocrisy is bad, but it's not the worst vice in the world. If I declared "murder is wrong" and then killed somebody, I would hope that the top count against me would be homicide, not hypocrisy. Liberal elites — particularly in Hollywood — believe that hypocrisy is the gravest sin in the world, which is why they advocate their own lifestyles for the entire world: Sleep with whomever you want, listen to your own instincts, be true to yourself, blah, blah, blah. Our fear of hypocrisy is forcing us to live in a world where gluttons are fine, so long as they champion gluttony.

And I guess that summarizes why I am mystified those so quick to attack Bennett. They hate him, but they manage to hold him to a higher standard than those they support.