An entire section of Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s 2013 book Government Bullies was copied wholesale from a 2003 case study by the Heritage Foundation, BuzzFeed has learned. The copied section, 1,318 words, is by far the most significant instance reported so far of Paul borrowing language from other published material. ... SNIP ... In this case, Paul included a link to the Heritage case study in the book’s footnotes, though he made no effort to indicate that not just the source, but the words themselves, had been taken from Heritage.

The self-certifying ophthalmologist does seem to have a bit of a problem actually doing the work necessary to develop original thoughts.

And Heritage, of course, says "No problem".



Asked about the copied text Mike Gonzalez, vice president of communications for the Heritage Foundation said “we like when people cite our work. We wish more progressives would cite our work, maybe then they wouldn’t be so progressively wrong.” Later, after this story went live the Heritage spokesman called BuzzFeed back to say “we don’t care” about the copy job.

In another instance in the book several sentences appeared similar to a report by a senior fellow at the Cato Institute Mark Moller in the National Wetlands Newsletter. Moller said he had not given anyone permission to reprint any parts of his article. The text was once again cited in the footnotes but the words were passed off as Sen. Paul’s.

I can guarantee that if Bill Clinton did this they'd have their Heritage Undies in a Heritage Knot.And again, the Cato Institute (which linked to the PDF of the newsletter) defended Paul's plagiarism. Because, as we all know, IOKIYAR. At least to other Republicans.

Still a tempest in a Tea Party Kettle, but enough hits like this may at least damage Paul's reputation as a "thinker" in the Village, and that would be helpful.