The Pot Calling the Kettle a Plagiarist
In the latest bit of hypocrisy from the Weldon campaign, Weldon accuses Sestak of plagiarizing a health-policy position paper. Philly Inquirer
As usual, there is more to the story....
Let's do a hypocrisy check:
Sestak talks to policy experts and they are happy that Joe incorporated their ideas into his position paper. Some wording and vocabulary was similar.
Weldon plagiarized his own tax-payer funded congressional website for use in his campaign, and was forced to re-design his campaign website. Whole pages were lifted verbatim with the only difference swapping "I" with "Curt Weldon".
Were the tax-payers happy that Weldon violated campaign and House ethics rules?
Way to go, Curt!
Notice, nowhere in Weldon's complaint do we see one word discussing the merits Sestak's position on health-care. Why? Maybe because Weldon can't win on a discussion of the issues.
For future reference, if Joe or any of his campaign staff likes what I write about Weldon's foibles and foolishness, they are free to use it in speeches, bumper-stickers, and any other media that will help enlighten voters about what a truly dismal representative Weldon has been (and continues to be).
As usual, there is more to the story....
- The Progressive Policy Institute is a Democratic Leadership Council think-tank that provides health-care and other policy information, with the hope of disemination, to candidates and anyone interested in said policies.
- David Kendall, the Progressive Policy Institute's health-care expert, said Sestak contacted him in February to query him on his ideas and ask permission to incorporate them in his positions.
"I told him he didn't need permission," Kendall said. Think tanks toss ideas into the public domain for exactly this purpose, he said. - Institute Senior Fellow Paul Weinstein Jr., who authored some of the work and discussed it with Sestak last winter, wasn't offended.
"That's the mission of our organization, to provide policy positions to officials in both parties," he said.
Let's do a hypocrisy check:
Sestak talks to policy experts and they are happy that Joe incorporated their ideas into his position paper. Some wording and vocabulary was similar.
Weldon plagiarized his own tax-payer funded congressional website for use in his campaign, and was forced to re-design his campaign website. Whole pages were lifted verbatim with the only difference swapping "I" with "Curt Weldon".
Were the tax-payers happy that Weldon violated campaign and House ethics rules?
Way to go, Curt!
Notice, nowhere in Weldon's complaint do we see one word discussing the merits Sestak's position on health-care. Why? Maybe because Weldon can't win on a discussion of the issues.
For future reference, if Joe or any of his campaign staff likes what I write about Weldon's foibles and foolishness, they are free to use it in speeches, bumper-stickers, and any other media that will help enlighten voters about what a truly dismal representative Weldon has been (and continues to be).
posted by David Diano at 9:55 AM
5 Comments:
Hmm Joe's campaign can use your blogwork? Where can I get my "Institute Senior Fellow Paul Weinstein Jr., who authored some of the work and discussed it with Sestak last winter, wasn't offended" bumper sticker? It's pretty catchy.
I think this blog prides itself on its creative headings and complex cultural allusions (monkeys with typewriters, etc.), however I think you betrayed yourself with this one.
If the pot (Weldon, who according to this site is the antichrist, a thief, liar, etc.) is calling the kettle (Sestak) black... then that would mean they're both cookingwear and therefore of a similar vein. If we have a pot who is as bad as you say then who wants a kettle either?
Dear Anonymous Weldon Campaign workers-
Weldon is trying to create at Tempest in a teapot (he is the "pot"). The hypocrisy is that Weldon violated campaign and ethics rules and now it trying to paint Sestak with a plagiarism brush. It's like a car-thief complaining about a guy that steals hubcaps (and it turns out the guy was replacing hubcaps on his own car). For the analogy, it is only relevent that Weldon perceives Sestak as a kettle.
The facts are that
- Sestak's use of the material was approved by the original source of the material (if the author doesn't consider it plagiarism, no one else should either).
- Weldon's campaign was so eager that they jumped the gun and accused Sestak without the facts
Weldon has jumped the gun before when he declared Bin Laden dead back in March. Oh, wait, Weldon jumped the shark on that one.
As for the style and content of the blogging here:
I've never said that Weldon was the anti-Christ (Cheney, Santorum or Weldon pal Tom Delay are all better choices). Thief, liar, bribed, bought and paided for... would be up the lame House Ethics Committee and the voters on Nov. 7th to decide.
Actually, Weldon is more the anti-Congressman.
As for the cultural references, I guess it's a question of how well read someone is.
I'm not surprised that Weldon supporters, like yourselves, would find them complex. Weldon has survival has rested heavily upon people being less-informed about many of his policies/votes as he touts a few popular ones.
As for bumper-sticker guy: when you order that bumper sticker, put me down for a:
"Weldon representation is like full diaper. It's time for a change."
I like the bumper sticker idea. I also agree that it really looks desparate for Weldon to jump at so many minor things (and be embarassingly wrong each time at that). Why are the Weldonians so tied up in the minutiae? The Wedlonians must really think that 7th Dsitrict voteres are stupid and that the voters won't see through their misleading sound bites and overblown hyperbole. Look at the substance test folks--Joe has it, Curt does not.
The question that needs to be asked is, where does Councilman Puppio get all the time to read all of Joe's stuff, and put together the numbe rof releases he does, especially int he middle of the day? When does he do County COuncil work? Maybe he's telling us the County Council can function with just four members.
I think we're seeing the Weldon strategy: every day release a new, constantly shifting, tiny attack on Sestak. The theory must be that they're keeping Joe on defense.
I continue to think that it's going to backfire. The stories that make it to the press always seem to end up pointing out the silliness of his attacks, as this one did. And every day, they're just increasing Sestak's name recognition.
It won't take very long to realize that there's only one candidate in the race who's actually talking about issues like health care.
The rest is just navel-gazing and phony bluster.
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