"Leftist witch hunt"? Maybe in part, taken with the usual salt needed with Broszian hyperbole. One is always tempted to exploit one's enemies' weaknesses.

There's a larger component to it, though: the reaction of the non-polarized general public, the ones who don't see everything in stark black/white, Left/Right, us/them, usually because they don't care a whit for politics. You could call it "How the mighty have fallen," if you wanted, or Feet of Clay Syndrome. We humans love to see the Big Boys, especially the self-appointed ones, taken down a peg or three. We love it even more when they do it to themselves. Why else has tragedy been a popular form of entertainment for 1500 years?

To answer your rhetorical question: yeah, it's the same Bill Bennett. He appears to believe that people can only become addicted to "foreign substances" - i.e., those introduced to the body from outside - but not to states of one's own brain/body chemistry induced by certain behaviors.

I haven't paid enough attention to know if he's getting counseling or other help, or if he's just going cold turkey... but I have a feeling his claim of ability to "handle it" was based more on the size of his bank balance. It sounds, on the surface, a lot like an alcoholic's automatic defense response.

Human to human, I wish him luck.