We have breaking news out on this Thursday afternoon. How did The New York Times find out that appointed Sen. John Walsh (D-MT) plagiarized his War College thesis?
As Politico reports: NRSC cops to Walsh plagiarism leak (h/t Nick Riccardi)
The National Republican Senatorial Committee was the source behind the story that forced Montana Sen. John Walsh to drop out as a result of plagiarism at the U.S. Army War College, NRSC executive director Rob Collins revealed at a POLITICO Playbook lunch Thursday.
Collins said the researcher who discovered the Walsh hit, Mark McLaughlin, also found the evidence in 2011-2012 that now Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren exaggerated her Native American roots to advance her academic career. (Zach Gillan is another key member of the NRSC’s research team.)
Collins said what initially caught McLaughlin’s attention was “a very, very pro-Bush ‘neocon’ thesis that Sen. Walsh had written” in 2007. Then he put it through an online translator that checks for plagiarism, and “the entire last five pages of it turned bright red,” said Collins. “It was pretty dead-to-rights plagiarism.”
So, to break it down, it was the seemingly pro-interventionist writings of an appointed Senator who was running as the anti-war candidate that led researchers to the paper…and they discovered something even bigger…
Meanwhile, from The Washington Post: 14 embarrassing things you do when you’re about to lose an election
Running
Democrat Charlie Hardy, a 75-year-old former priest, is 40 points behind Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.). He has been traveling the state in a bus for months, going for a three-mile-run in the morning every day wherever the campaign is camped. He’s likely to continue doing so for the last remaining days of the race.
Voting for yourself
Democratic state Rep. Amanda Curtis subbed into the Montana Senate race after incumbent Sen. John Walsh (D) dropped out amid a plagiarism scandal. With only months to campaign, it was never going to be easy. Republican Rep. Steve Daines is about 18 points ahead. She’s still scheduling rallies, and voted for herself on Tuesday.
And things aren’t looking any better for Montana Democrats in the US House race either, as the Ryan Zinke for US House campaign points out:
In a recent television analysis, Dr. David Parker, a political analyst for MTN concluded that Ryan Zinke’s military record was precisely as he presented it to be—an astounding record of someone who has served their country honorably.
Parker praises Ryan Zinke’s record as exceptional, stating, “You see words like ‘exceptional’, ‘outstanding’, ‘tremendous, and ‘top-notch’.”
“In terms of looking at this record in context, I saw nothing there that suggested anything but a superior performance by someone in the Navy SEALs,” said Parker. “I have heard the drum beat on these records from way back in the primary, and I didn’t seem anything there, so I think for all intents and purposes, it’s a done issue.”
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