Rand Paul Busted For More Plagiarism, Blames ‘Haters’ [Video]
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul is under fire again. This time, he faces accusations that he plagiarized several pages of his recent book Government Bullies. The pages in question were allegedly lifted directly from a 2003 Heritage Foundation study. Paul faced similar accusations of plagiarism last week when he was found to have used exact quotes from a Wikipedia entry about 1997 science fiction film Gattaca, as previously reported by The Inquisitr.
The latest act of alleged plagiarism from the Republican senator were discovered by BuzzFeed. They found Paul and his co-author, Doug Stafford, to have essentially cut-and-paste about three pages worth of text. In response to these allegations, Stafford says Government Bullies includes footnotes citing the Heritage Foundation study as a source in the form of a URL.
If Rand Paul put his source in the footnotes, is that plagiarism? Plagiarism is a rather specific term that includes the re-use of exact words and even re-worded ideas or concepts. Naturally, many works draw ideas and thoughts from other sources. If another author’s ideas are put into another’s writings, a footnote is usually acceptable.
However, when using the exact same words, the copied text must always appear within quotation marks and with a clear citation. Assuming Senator Paul intended to use words written by the Heritage Foundation, and not his own, this is what he should have done. Since he failed to do so, those calling foul are technically correct. Without quotation marks and an explicit citation, it may look as though Paul intended to pass the words off as his own. As someone who has successfully completed the highest levels of education, Rand Paul would be aware of this etiquette.
With a pattern of “borrowed” statements emerging from the Tea Party senator, critics are taking the opportunity to question Paul’s character and honesty. Rand Paul, however, is not too pleased about the accusations.
Firing back at his critics, Paul says that “I will not lie down and say people can call me dishonest, misleading, or misrepresenting. I have never intentionally done so,” reports Huffington Post. He says that the alleged plagiarism is being blown out of proportion by “haters” like Rachel Maddow, who exposed Paul’s recent Gattica speech.
The libertarian senator believes the hype around the lifted pages are just “political enemies and have an ax to grind.” Rand Paul went on to joke that if dueling were still legal in Kentucky, he would challenge his critics to face off, presumably with pistols at dawn.
[Image via Wikimedia Commons / Gage Skidmore]
