HOW HE SEES IT Shamelessness will triumph over shame

By MICHAEL GOODWIN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
It was F. Scott Fitzgerald who famously said, "There are no second acts in American lives." He obviously spoke too soon.
Rush Limbaugh proved him wrong. So did Bill Bennett. And bet your OxyContin and the vibrator that Bill O'Reilly will, too.
Welcome to Trash Nation, where shamelessness triumphs over shame. Not only do the mighty who fall get a second act, it often pays better than the first!
O'Reilly certainly qualifies.
The most popular person on cable TV, best-selling author and syndicated columnist, O'Reilly is facing sensational sexual harassment charges filed by a producer of his Fox cable show "The O'Reilly Factor."
The lurid accusations that O'Reilly, a married father of two, pushed Andrea Mackris to buy a sex toy, boasted about his experience with Swedish stewardesses and masturbated while he talked to her on the phone are so dramatic there is already talk that O'Reilly's days atop the cable heap are numbered.
He said so himself. Appearing on a TV show to promote his children's book -- oh, the irony -- O'Reilly said he was warned that the case, including his claim he is a victim of extortion, could ruin his career. "If I have to go down, I'm willing to do it," he said in characteristic tough-guy mode. "I'm going to take a stand."
It's a good pose, with the right dose of righteous indignation. Of course, assuming he's guilty, he must eventually show some contrition, but not too much. That would reveal weakness and embarrass his loyal fans.
So he threw the first public punch, saying Mackris and her lawyer demanded $60 million in hush money and calling their charges "the single most evil thing I've ever experienced." Only hours later did Mackris file her charges in riveting and revolting detail.
Experts say O'Reilly's suit is a long shot, with one man's extortion claim being another lawyer's settlement talks. But by striking first, O'Reilly did get ahead of the story and dominate the first news cycle. It might be a lousy legal strategy, but it could save his neck in the court of public opinion, even if Mackris tape-recorded some of the alleged lewd calls.
Offense-defense
Already O'Reilly's offense-defense has sparked talk about how $60 million is an outrageous sum and about why Mackris left his show and then returned, even though some of the alleged harassment took place during her first stint at Fox.
Liberals, meanwhile, are head over champagne with delight as the latest leading voice of conservatism takes a beating. Recent history ought to sober them.
Bennett, whose "Book of Virtues" made him rich, was the Poster Boy for Hypocrisy when he fessed up to losing $8 million in casinos. Limbaugh checked himself into rehab after admitting he was hooked on the pain-killer OxyContin. After brief timeouts, both came roaring back.
Democrats, too, have benefited from our shame-free culture. The married but not very reverent Jesse Jackson was back lecturing others on morality soon after admitting he fathered a child out of wedlock. And the guy in the Oval Office who hooked up with the intern wearing a thong has developed the Midas touch on the book and lecture circuit.
Not everybody escapes. Gary Hart seemed headed for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination. Then along came the fetching Donna Rice and the lovebird photo on the boat aptly named Monkey Business. For Hart, it was lights out, though John Kerry reportedly now seeks his advice.
But Hart's long banishment is quaint by today's rehab-and-redeem cycle. So O'Reilly can count on things looking up the very moment he hits rock bottom.
After all, Martha Stewart no sooner landed in the pokey than word leaked she had been peddling a prison diary.
Now, that's marketing genius: Snuggle between Martha's sheets while reading about her life in lockdown!
Operators are standing by.
X Michael Goodwin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the New York Daily News. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.