William Bennett | |
---|---|
Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy | |
In office March 13, 1989 –December 13, 1990 | |
President | George H. W. Bush |
Preceded by | Position established |
Succeeded by | Bob Martinez |
3rd United States Secretary of Education | |
In office February 6,1985 –September 20,1988 | |
President | Ronald Reagan |
Preceded by | Terrel Bell |
Succeeded by | Lauro Cavazos |
Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities | |
In office December 24,1981 –February 6,1985 | |
President | Ronald Reagan |
Preceded by | Joseph Duffey |
Succeeded by | John Agresto (acting) |
Personal details | |
Born | William John Bennett July 31,1943 New York City,New York,U.S. |
Political party | Republican (1986–present) |
Other political affiliations | Democratic (before 1986) |
Spouse | Elayne Glover (m. 1982) |
Relations | Robert S. Bennett (brother) |
Children | 2 |
Education | Williams College (BA) University of Texas at Austin (MA, PhD) Harvard University (JD) |
William John Bennett (born July 31, 1943) is an American conservative politician and political commentator who served as secretary of education from 1985 to 1988 under President Ronald Reagan. He also held the post of director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under George H. W. Bush.
Bennett was born July 31, 1943 [1] to a Catholic family in Brooklyn, the son of Nancy ( née Walsh), a medical secretary, and F. Robert Bennett, a banker. [2] [3] His family moved to Washington, D.C., where he attended Gonzaga College High School. He graduated from Williams College in 1965, where he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Society, and received a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in political philosophy in 1970. He also has a J.D. from Harvard Law School, graduating in 1971.
Bennett was an associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Boston University from 1971 to 1972 and then became an assistant professor of philosophy and an assistant to John Silber, the president of the college, from 1972 to 1976. In May 1979, Bennett became the director of the National Humanities Center, an independent institute in North Carolina, after the death of its founder Charles Frankel.
In 1981 President Reagan appointed Bennett to chair the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), where he served until Reagan appointed him Secretary of Education in 1985. Reagan initially nominated Mel Bradford to the position, but due to Bradford's pro-Confederate views, Bennett was appointed. This event was later marked as the watershed in the divergence between paleoconservatives, who backed Bradford, and neoconservatives, led by Irving Kristol, who supported Bennett.
While at NEH, Bennett published "To Reclaim a Legacy: A Report on the Humanities in Higher Education", a 63-page report. It was based on an assessment of the teaching and learning of the humanities at the baccalaureate level, conducted by a blue-ribbon study group of 31 nationally prominent authorities on higher education convened by NEH. [4]
In May 1986, Bennett switched from the Democratic to the Republican Party. [5] In September 1988, Bennett resigned as secretary of education, to join the Washington law firm of Dunnels, Duvall, Bennett, and Porter. In March 1989, he returned to the federal government, becoming the first Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, appointed by President George H. W. Bush. He was confirmed by the Senate in a 97–2 vote. He left that position in December 1990.
In April 2004, Bennett began hosting Morning in America , a nationally syndicated radio program produced and distributed by Dallas, Texas-based Salem Communications. [6] The show aired live weekdays from 6:00 to 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time, and was one of the only syndicated conservative talk shows in the morning drive time slot. However, its clearances were limited due to a preference for local shows in this slot,[ clarify ] and the show got most of its clearances on Salem-owned outlets. Morning in America was also carried on Sirius Satellite Radio, on Channel 144, also known as the Patriot Channel. [7] Bennett retired from full-time radio on March 31, 2016. [8] [9]
In 2008, Bennett became the host of a CNN weekly talk show, Beyond the Politics. The show did not have a long run, but Bennett remained a CNN contributor until he was fired in 2013 by then-new CNN president Jeff Zucker.
Bennett has been moderating The Wise Guys, a Sunday night show on Fox News, since January 2018. Carried on Fox Nation as well, participants include Tyrus, Byron York, Ari Fleischer, Victor Davis Hanson, and others. [10]
Bennett writes for National Review Online, National Review and Commentary , and is a former senior editor of National Review.
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 and speaker.
Bennett was the Washington Fellow of the Claremont Institute. He was also a commentator for CNN until 2013.
He is an advisor to Project Lead The Way and Beanstalk Innovation. [11] He is on the advisory board of Udacity, Inc., Viridis Learning, Inc. and the board of directors of Vocefy, Inc. and Webtab, Inc.
In 2017, Bennett launched a podcast, The Bill Bennett Show. [12]
According to internal White House records from January 6, 2021, Bennett spoke on the phone with then-President Donald Trump just before Trump went to the "Save America" rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol. [13]
Bennett tends to take a conservative position on affirmative action, school vouchers, curriculum reform, and religion in education. As education secretary, he asked colleges for stronger enforcement of drug laws and supported a classical education. He frequently criticized schools for low standards. In 1987 he called the Chicago Public Schools system "the worst in the nation." [14] He coined the term "the blob" to describe the state education bureaucracy, [15] a derogation which was later taken up in Britain by Michael Gove. [16]
Bennett is a staunch supporter of the War on Drugs and has been criticized by some for his views. On Larry King Live , he said that a viewer's suggestion of beheading drug dealers would be "morally plausible." [17] He also "lamented that we still grant them [drug dealers] habeas corpus rights." [18]
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 [19] sent to President Bill Clinton, which urged Clinton to remove Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein from power.
Bennett is a neoconservative, and [20] was an advocate for the Iraq War. [20]
In 2016, Bennett vigorously supported Donald Trump in his presidential campaign, writing that saying that conservatives who objected to Trump "suffer from a terrible case of moral superiority and put their own vanity and taste above the interest of the country" and that "our country can survive the occasional infelicities and improprieties of Donald Trump. But it cannot survive losing the Supreme Court to liberals." [21]
In 2003, it became publicly known that Bennett - who had spent years preaching about family values and personal responsibility - was a high-stakes gambler who lost millions of dollars in Las Vegas. [22] Criticism increased in the wake of Bennett's publication, The Book of Virtues , a compilation of moral stories about courage, responsibility, friendship and other examples of virtue. Joshua Green of the Washington Monthly said that Bennett failed to denounce gambling because of his own tendency to gamble. Also, Bennett and Empower America, the organization he co-founded and headed at the time, opposed an extension of casino gambling in the United States. [23]
Bennett said that his habit had not jeopardized himself or his family financially. After Bennett's gambling problem became public, he said he did not believe his habit set a good example, that he had "done too much gambling" over the years, and his "gambling days are over". "We are financially solvent," his wife Elayne told USA Today . "All our bills are paid." She added that his gambling days are over. "He's never going again," she said. [24]
Several months later, Bennett qualified his position, saying, "So, in this case, the excessive gambling is over." He explained, "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." [25]
On September 28, 2005, in a discussion on Bennett's Morning in America radio show, a caller to the show proposed that "lost revenue from the people who have been aborted in the last 30 years" could preserve Social Security if abortion had not been permitted since Roe v. Wade . Bennett responded by hypothesizing, "If you wanted to reduce crime, you could—if that were the sole purpose—you could abort every black baby in this country and the crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down." [26] [27]
Bennett responded to the criticism by saying, in part:
External videos | |
---|---|
Booknotes interview with Bennett on The Book of Virtues, January 9, 1994, C-SPAN |
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 eleven 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:
In 1967, as a graduate student in Austin, Texas, Bennett went on a single blind date with Janis Joplin. He later lamented, "That date lasted two hours, and I've spent 200 hours talking about it." [29]
Bennett married his wife, Mary Elayne Glover, in 1982. They have two sons, John and Joseph. Elayne is the president and founder of Best Friends Foundation, a national program promoting sexual abstinence among adolescents.
Bennett is the younger brother of Washington attorney Robert S. Bennett.
Charles Joseph Scarborough is an American television host, attorney, political commentator, and former politician who is the co-host of Morning Joe on MSNBC with his wife Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist. He previously hosted Scarborough Country on the same network. A former member of the Republican Party, Scarborough was in the United States House of Representatives for Florida's 1st district from 1995 to 2001. He was appointed to the President's Council on the 21st Century Workforce in 2002. and was a visiting fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He was named in the 2011 Time 100 as one of the most influential people in the world.
Alan Lee Keyes is an American politician, political scientist, and perennial candidate who served as the Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs from 1985 to 1987. A member of the Republican Party, Keyes sought the nomination for President of the United States in 1996, 2000, and 2008.
William French Smith II was an American lawyer and the 74th United States Attorney General. After attaining his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1942, Smith went on to join the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in 1946. Smith became acquainted with California governor candidate Ronald Reagan in 1966, after which Reagan appointed him to the University of California Board of Regents. Smith was nominated for U.S. Attorney General shortly after Reagan's victory in the 1980 United States presidential election, assuming the title on January 23, 1981, and serving until February 25, 1985.
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965, dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The NEH is housed at 400 7th St SW, Washington, D.C. From 1979 to 2014, NEH was at 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C., in the Nancy Hanks Center at the Old Post Office.
Gary Lee Bauer is an American civil servant, activist, and former political candidate. He served in President Ronald Reagan's administration as Under Secretary of Education and Chief Domestic Policy Advisor, and later became president of the Family Research Council and a senior vice president of Focus on the Family, both conservative Christian organizations. Bauer was a candidate in the 2000 Republican Party presidential primaries and participated in five national debates. He is known for his advocacy of religious liberty, support for Israel, and his dedication to electing conservative candidates to Congress.
John P. Walters is the president and chief executive officer of Hudson Institute; he was appointed in January 2021. He joined Hudson in 2009 as the executive vice president and most recently was the chief operating officer. Previously, Walters was Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) in the George W. Bush administration. He held that position from February 5, 2001 to January 20, 2009. As the U.S. "Drug Czar", Walters coordinated all aspects of federal anti-drug policies and spending. As drug czar, he was a staunch opponent of drug decriminalization, legalization, and medical marijuana.
Hugh Hewitt is an American conservative political commentator, radio talk show host with the Salem Radio Network, attorney, academic, and author. He writes about law, society, politics, and media bias in the United States. Hewitt is a former official in the Reagan administration, the former president and CEO of the Richard Nixon Foundation, a law professor at Chapman University School of Law, a columnist for The Washington Post, and a regular political commentator on Fox News.
Christopher Wallace is an American broadcast journalist. He is known for his tough and wide-ranging interviews, for which he is often compared to his father, 60 Minutes journalist Mike Wallace. Over his 50-year career in journalism he has been a correspondent, moderator, or anchor on CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox News, and now CNN. In 2018 he was ranked one of America's most trusted TV news anchors. Wallace has won three Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, a George Polk Award, the duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton Award, and a Paul White lifetime achievement award.
In political studies, surveys have been conducted in order to construct historical rankings of the success of the presidents of the United States. Ranking systems are usually based on surveys of academic historians and political scientists or popular opinion. The scholarly rankings focus on presidential achievements, leadership qualities, failures and faults. Popular-opinion polls typically focus on recent or well-known presidents.
The President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH) is an advisory committee to the President of the United States on cultural issues. It works directly with the White House and the three primary cultural agencies: the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), as well as other federal partners and the private sector, to advance wide-ranging policy objectives in the arts and humanities. These include considerations for how the arts and humanities sectors can positively impact community well-being, economic development, public health, education, civic engagement, and climate change across the United States.
Melvin E. Bradford was an American conservative author, political commentator and professor of literature at the University of Dallas.
Harvey Claflin Mansfield Jr. is an American political philosopher. He was the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Government at Harvard University, where he taught since 1962. He has held Guggenheim and NEH Fellowships and has been a Fellow at the National Humanities Center. In 2004, he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President George W. Bush and delivered the Jefferson Lecture in 2007.
Adventures from the Book of Virtues is an American animated children's television series based on the books The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories, and The Children's Book of Virtues, both by William Bennett, who served as Secretary of Education under President Ronald Reagan. The program focuses on two main human characters, Annie and Zach, who learn many life lessons from their friends Plato the bison, Aurora the red-tailed hawk, Aristotle the prairie dog, and Socrates the bobcat. These lessons are told in the form of animated segments based on stories from a variety of origins including Bible stories, fairy tales, fables, mythology, and folk stories from diverse cultures.
The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories, sometimes shortened to The Book of Virtues (ISBN 0-684-83577-0), is an anthology edited by William Bennett. It was published on November 1, 1993, by Simon & Schuster and was followed by The Moral Compass: Stories for a Life's Journey, in late 1995.
William Reynolds Ferris Jr. is an American author and scholar and former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. With Judy Peiser he co-founded the Center for Southern Folklore in Memphis, Tennessee; he was the founding director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, and is co-editor of The Encyclopedia of Southern Culture.
George James Terwilliger III is an American lawyer and public official. He is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of McGuireWoods LLP where he is head of the firm's Crisis Response practice and co-head of its white collar team. He is a former United States Deputy Attorney General and acting United States Attorney General. Terwilliger, of Vermont, was nominated on February 14, 1992, by President George H. W. Bush to be Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice. He succeeded William Pelham Barr. As Deputy Attorney General, Terwilliger became the second-highest-ranking official in the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and ran the day-to-day operations of the department, serving in that position from 1991 through 1993. He was appointed to the position by President George H.W. Bush after serving as the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont, appointed by President Reagan.
This article discusses the domestic policy of the Ronald Reagan administration from 1981 to 1989. Reagan's policies stressed conservative economic values, starting with his implementation of supply-side economic policies, dubbed as "Reaganomics" by both supporters and detracters. His policies also included the largest tax cut in American history as well as increased defense spending as part of his Soviet strategy. However, he significantly raised (non-income) taxes four times due to economic conditions and reforms, but the tax reforms instituted during presidency brought top marginal rates to their lowest levels since 1931, such that by 1988, the top US marginal tax rate was 28%.
Jon Parrish Peede is an American book editor and literary review publisher, who served as the chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities from 2018 to 2021.
Seth Leibsohn is a conservative talk show host and author. He is also a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute, and was the producer for Bill Bennett's Morning in America, a syndicated talk show in the 2000s. Most recently he was the co-host, along with Chris Buskirk, of the Phoenix-based talk show, The Seth and Chris Show. He resigned from the show in order to run for the House Seat vacated by Kyrsten Sinema. However, when the consulting group his campaign hired to spearhead the campaign failed to collect the required number of signatures to appear on the ballot, he was forced to withdraw from the race. Currently he hosts The Seth Leibsohn Show on KKNT in Phoenix.
The tennis court at the White House, the official residence of the president of the United States in Washington, D.C., is located on the South Lawn. Lines have been drawn, and baskets have since been added to the court for use as a basketball court.