Sections of an op-ed Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul wrote on mandatory minimums in The Washington Times in September appear nearly identical to an article by Dan Stewart of The Week that ran a week earlier. The discovery comes amid reports from BuzzFeed that Paul plagiarized in his book and in several speeches.
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Paul also delivered testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 16, 2013, that included the copied sections.
As the controversy has grown over the last week, Paul has done his best to change the subject, complaining about those who’ve noticed him presenting others’ work as his own, trying to redefine words like “plagiarism” and “footnotes,” and complaining that he’s being held to an unreasonable “standard.”The senator’s pushback hasn’t helped, in part because it’s unpersuasive, and in part because it’s unrelated to the issue at hand.One assumes Paul will be more careful going forward, but over the last three years, he’s given lots of speeches, written plenty of op-eds, and even published a couple of books. And if the last week is any indication, the closer one looks at the senator’s body of work, the more evidence emerges that Paul has an ugly habit he’s refused to acknowledge or apologize for.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."