海角大神

This Sunday鈥檚 Shorts:

Somewhat surprisingly, I鈥檝e received more email and twitter responses regarding about allegations that Fareed Zakaria is guilty of plagiarism than I have about my posts. The that published the original accusations against Zakaria has now posted allegedly 鈥渟howing how Zakaria blatantly and repeatedly plagiarized in not just what is his most popular book, but two different cover stories for the magazines he used to serve as editor for, Foreign Affairs and Newsweek.鈥� As yet, however, as 笔辞濒颈迟颈肠辞鈥�s , the charges do not seem to be gaining much traction in the national press, in contrast to the allegations from two years ago which led to Zakaria鈥檚 suspension. This may be because that this is outright plagiarism or 鈥� as some readers have suggested 鈥� it may be that media members are reluctant to condemn one of their own. Among those on my twitterverse feed, however, most of the comments are along these lines: 鈥淲ait, , are you seriously pretending this might not be plagiarism???? 鈥� Whatever the merits of the charges, the bottom line remains this (my students, take heed!): When in doubt, quote and cite!

In this era of a polarized punditry, it was perhaps surprising to see agreement among pundits on the Left and the Right regarding Texas Gov. Rick Perry鈥檚 , and it is not just because of . While it may not be the case that, as a , 鈥淚f Perry has the right team in place, which it looks like he does, he can ride this Democrat overreach into the top slot of the 2016 GOP primary," this does seem to be an instance of a Democratic prosecutor trying to criminalize a political act. Or, as put it, the 鈥淩ick Perry indictment is the dumbest thing since Rick Perry.鈥� The Perry campaign wasted no time on milking the charges for political gain, with everything from campaign ads to T-shirts publicizing what they claim is partisan-driven prosecutorial excess.

Still, sees this as a win for Perry. And, in fact, if the charges do stick 鈥� most legal experts think this is farfetched 鈥� it鈥檚 hard to see how Perry鈥檚 presidential aspirations will be helped. In the meantime, however, he鈥檚 wasting no time in trying to capitalize on this free publicity.

Finally, former Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords鈥� funeral . Almost led with reference to his decision in 2001 to bolt the Republican Party and caucus with Senate Democrats, thus giving Democrats a Senate majority. While it is probably not true that his decision 鈥溾�� 鈥� Democrats retained their majority for a mere 18 months 鈥� it did create a national sensation at the time of his announcement. In announcing , Jeffords stated that, 鈥淚 have changed my party label, but I have not changed my beliefs. Indeed, my decision is about affirming the principles that have shaped my career.鈥� He may have meant that. However, left unsaid in the countless obituaries was just how far Jeffords鈥� voting record moved left during his remaining four-plus years as a senator. In fact, in the years after he declared as an independent, his voting record was consistently more liberal than not just every Senate Republican鈥檚 鈥� it was to the left of most Senate Democrats as well. I will go into more detail about this in a separate post, but it is a reminder that small state senators typically have a deeper electoral cushion than do their large-state colleagues, and hence more flexibility in how they cast their votes.

Jeffords, Perry and Zakaria. You can鈥檛 make this stuff up. It鈥檚 why I love politics.

Matthew Dickinson publishes his Presidential Power blog at .