He’s already accused his opponent, a female neurosurgeon, of conducting a–wait for it–war on women, and now Senator Jeff Merkley’s back with an equally laughable charge of “plagiarism”.

Jeff Merkley, who “plagiarizes” seemingly every policy idea from a woman who plagiarized her Native American heritage for personal gain (hence the nick name Fauxchahontas), Elizabeth ‘You Didn’t Build That’ Warren, and champions the crash and burn policies of Barack Obama, is now accusing his senate opponent of “plagiarism”.

I can understand why Jeff Merkley probably planted the plagiarism story with Andrew Kaczynski of Buzzfeed about his opponent using other people’s policy ideas. Jeff Merkley gets the compliant media to put his opponent’s name and the word “plagiarism” in the same sentence in every searchable database in the universe. Maybe Merkley hoped his phony plagiarism charge would bully his opponent out of the race like Democrat senate candidate John Walsh--who plagiarized an entire thesis to receive his post graduate degree from the Army War College.

Here’s a thought: maybe Jeff Merkley plagiarized the idea to charge plagiarism against his opponent because he can’t hold his own in the operating theater of ideas. Quick, check to see if that phrase “operating theater of ideas” is plagiarized.

One of Merkley’s idols, Democrat Joe Biden, now gets a pass for plagiarizing a speech–indeed a life story–from a UK politician. But Biden also plagiarized: a LAW REVIEW article, passages of speeches from Robert Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey, lied about participating in protests in the civil rights movement and lied about his law school accomplishments. Jeff Merkley’s idol Joe Biden is a serial plagiarizer whose pants are on fire.

The smart neurosurgeon Dr. Monica Wehby chose policy prescriptions from one of the smartest people in the US Senate, Rob Portman who coaches candidates on policy ideas, of which Wehby is one. She adopted policy ideas from a guy who runs a POLICY IDEA SHOP and is one of the more moderate political operators out there, Karl Rove. In a world where politicians can openly lie about an opponent and it’s considered protected free speech, this isn’t even close to plagiarism, it’s politics. 

If Congress ever stopped borrowing ideas, turns of phrase and whole bills from lobbyists and affinity groups, there would be no legislation. Ever. Indeed, those groups actually write legislation most of the time. Merkley wouldn’t actually know that perhaps because he doesn’t have his name on much, if any, legislation.

But if we were to adopt the Jeff Merkley’s definition of plagiarism imagine the fall out:

• Jeff Merkley’s doctors would have to come up with unique ways to write the same prescriptions or else be accused of plagiarism
• Jeff Merkley’s lawyers wouldn’t be able to use plagiarized boilerplate language.
• Jeff Merkley couldn’t use a ghost writer to plagiarize a book or speech.
• Jeff Merkley’s campaign couldn’t use plagiarized anti Koch Brothers slogans anymore which means he would have no more campaign.
• Jeff Merkley wouldn’t be able to sign the letter siccing the IRS on his political opponents (see below) because someone else wrote it.
• Jeff Merkley could never sign on to any legislation written by someone else–like ObamaCare, Dodd-Frank, through the ceiling spending–because it was plagiarized. Hey, wait…that actually might be a good idea!
• Jeff Merkley could never do a Facebook posting again because someone else a) does them and, b) they’re always someone else’s plagiarized ideas.

Wehby’s reaction, to remove the policy ideas from her website, was silly. She should have owned them, defended them, and ask Merkley to debate her on the issues. Instead she retreated. 

Merkley’s campaign is a side show and embarrassment. I’m now changing my Merkley moniker from “The Accidental Senator” to “Sideshow Jeff”. He’s earned it.

Merkley Letter to Irs by VictoriaTaft

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