海角大神

Someday, the political world may forget the time when Sen. Rand Paul was caught plagiarizing other sources for some of his speeches and writings.

But not now, and certainly not if he runs for president in 2016.

Sloppiness on his part (or, more likely, his staff) is not a hanging offense in Washington. Vice president Joe Biden is not the only one to have pilfered somebody else鈥檚 prose 鈥� forcing him to withdraw from the 1988 presidential race 鈥� and recovered politically.

But it is a blight on one鈥檚 brand, no matter that the Kentucky Republican has likened his case to a high school kid who got too cozy with Wikipedia. 鈥淒o I have to be in detention the rest of my聽career?鈥� he asks.

Sen. Paul has felt a sort of shunning. The Washington Times and Paul have 鈥渕utually agreed鈥� to end his regular column, the conservative newspaper announced this week.

鈥淲e expect our columnists to submit original work and to properly attribute material, and we appreciate that the senator and his staff have taken responsibility for an oversight in one column,鈥� Times Editor聽John Solomon聽said. The newspaper got stung by a Paul column on mandatory sentencing, parts of which were identical to passages in a piece in The Week, BuzzFeed found.

Paul will continue to be able to preach (in writing) to the choir, however, via the tea party web site Breitbart.com. Without mentioning the plagiarism flap or his split with the Washington Times, Breitbart executives embraced Paul in making the announcement this week.

鈥淲e are pleased to add Senator Paul to our lineup of fearless, original thought leaders," said Breitbart News CEO Larry Solov. "Most of all, we think the fighting spirit he has become known for is a perfect fit for Breitbart News Network and reflects that of our founder, Andrew Breitbart.鈥�

"Senator Rand Paul speaks to a new generation of conservatives 鈥� ones who have become the foundation of the modern Tea Party and Liberty Movement," Stephen Bannon, the executive chairman of the Breitbart News Network, said in statement. "We are honored to have his voice as part of our community."

Meanwhile, a couple more instances involving Paul using other sources without giving due credit have risen.

Salon reported Friday that 鈥渋n two 2013 speeches, Paul borrowed from a conservative think-tank without attribution.鈥�

鈥淚n his speech at the Value Voters Summit on October 11, Paul appropriated written material from the Gatestone Institute, a think-tank chaired by John Bolton.

鈥淭he transcript of the speech聽has been removed from Paul鈥檚 web site聽鈥� as have聽the transcripts from numerous other speeches聽while Paul battles an ongoing plagiarism scandal 鈥撀犅燽ut it can聽be found using Google cache.

鈥淧aul鈥檚 speech draws 鈥� without attribution 鈥� from two Gatestone Institute articles,聽鈥楾he Degradation of 海角大神 Women Under Islam,鈥櫬爌ublished on September 11, 2013, and 鈥楳uslim Persecution of 海角大神s,鈥櫬爌ublished on April 18th.

鈥淲hile several elements of Paul鈥檚 speech were taken word for word from Gatestone, in other cases a single word or two was changed or added. Paul did not attribute Gatestone鈥檚 writing or research anywhere in the speech, as it was originally posted on his web site.鈥�

Salon found another example of Paul using the work of the Gatestone Institute without attribution, this time in June in a speech to the Faith and Freedom Coalition.

You can be sure that Salon, BuzzFeed, and hard-charging liberal journalists like MSNBC鈥檚 Rachel Maddow will continue probing Rand Paul鈥檚 published past.