For the news cycles, the plagiarism scandal involving Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is the gift that keeps on giving — and a story with legs. It’s being kept alive as more revelations about how Paul used whole chunks of work for others without attribution in his speeches and books. Rather than just say this was unfortunate staff work (he most likely does not write every single speech and book by himself) and apologize, he has gone on the attack against the “haters and hacks” and against journalists.
But the fact remains: if he had been a student who had plagiarized once — let alone a repeatedly plagiarizer — he would be suspended or expelled from some universities.
Our political quote of the day comes from University of Virginia Political Science Professor Larry Sabato:
Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, said the allegations are serious.
“If (Paul) were at my school, he would have been expelled because of the honor code. It’s a lot more serious than the ‘Aqua Buddha,'” Sabato said, referring to a hazing incident during the senator’s college days.
Paul, who has said he is considering a run for president in 2016, accepted responsibility for the controversy Tuesday on CNN, just two days after saying on ABC’s This Week that “hacks and haters” were targeting him.
“Ultimately, I’m the boss, and things go out under my name, so it is my fault,” he said on CNN. “I never had intentionally presented anyone’s ideas as my own.”
OF RELATED INTEREST:
—Rand Paul’s Book Had Three Pages Plagiarized From Think Tanks
–-Washington Times ends Rand Paul’s column due to plagiarism charges
—The Rand Paul Plagiarism Scandal (Guest Voice)
AND THE LATEST: Paul’s column didn’t live up to the journalistic standards of the Washington Times so it has been announced with great pride that his column will now appear on Breitbart.com (a good home for it, for sure).
FOOTNOTE: Larry Sabato’s new book “The Kennedy Half Century” on JFK’s administration, assassination and his impact on the presidents who followed him is a MUST READ. It will reviewed next week on TMV.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.