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November 13, 2010 02:51 AM UTC

George W. McPlagiarist, Anyone?

  • 15 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Writes the Huffington Post’s Ryan Grim:

When Crown Publishing inked a deal with George W. Bush for his memoirs, the publisher knew it wasn’t getting Faulkner…

Many of Bush’s literary misdemeanors exemplify pedestrian sloth, but others are higher crimes against the craft of memoir. In one prime instance, Bush relates a poignant meeting between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and a Tajik warlord on Karzai’s Inauguration Day. It’s the kind of scene that offers a glimpse of a hopeful future for the beleaguered nation. Witnessing such an exchange could color a president’s outlook, could explain perhaps Bush’s more optimistic outlook and give insight into his future decisions. Except Bush didn’t witness it. Because he wasn’t at Karzai’s inauguration.

His absence doesn’t stop Bush from relating this anecdote: “When Karzai arrived in Kabul for his inauguration on December 22 – 102 days after 9/11 – several Northern Alliance leaders and their bodyguards greeted him at an airport. As Karzai walked across the tarmac alone, a stunned Tajik warlord asked where all his men were. Karzai, responded, ‘Why, General, you are my men. All of you who are Afghans are my men.'”

That meeting would sound familiar to Ahmed Rashid, author of “The Mess in Afghanistan”, who wrote in the New York Review of Books: “At the airport to receive [Karzai] was the warlord General Mohammad Fahim, a Tajik from the Panjshir Valley …. As the two men shook hands on the tarmac, Fahim looked confused. ‘Where are your men?’ he asked. Karzai turned to him in his disarmingly gentle manner of speaking. ‘Why General,” he replied, “you are my men–all of you are Afghans and are my men.'”

With some other examples–it may not be quite the same situation as ex-gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis’ outright theft of Colorado Supreme Court Justice Gregory Hobbs’ articles on water law, but it’s not exactly what you’d call being a role model for the children either. Who did he cite for the meeting described above, for example, that he didn’t even attend?

On the upside, there may be a research assistant ready to take the fall.

Comments

15 thoughts on “George W. McPlagiarist, Anyone?

  1. Does Bush claim that he was there, or is he just relaying an anecdote?

    And, did Mr. Rashid actually witness the exchange, or did someone relay it to him?

     

  2. Unless you’re a real die-hard lefty. Then it’s manna. Even Mr. Anti-Bush himself Keith Olbermann decided to pass on the story tonight after initially planning on covering it. It was listed as part of the line-up then KO sent out a tweet that there isn’t enough proof of plagiarism at this time for it to be a real story.

    So for now, yawn. If researchers find other passages pulled from other authors in President Bush’s joke of a book, bring it on!

    1. as it is that he’s too lazy and too entirely lacking in any desire to think about anything to write a real memoir. It’s not worth making a legal fuss over but it certainly reinforces the idea that Bush has less interest in exploring ideas or looking into his own feelings than your average house plant.  

      Glad Olbermann didn’t do him the favor of raising interest on the right in buying the silly book. First day sales were pretty ho-hum.  Bush is no longer popular on the right but nothing would give righties more motivation to buy the book and than a nice Olbermann tirade directed against it. Smart decision.

      As for waterboarding, yes it’s clearly illegal and considered torture according to both our criminal and military law.  There are a hundred years worth of precedent to back that up, going back to the Spanish American War, with both American and enemy soldiers and American law enforcement personnel having been prosecuted and convicted of it over those years and as recently as a few decades ago.  

      Anyone, including GW’s lawyers,  could have easily  found that out in a few minutes worth of googling.  The technique was called water torture in earlier days but it’s the same thing. Guess they couldn’t very well call it water torture and still claim it wasn’t torture.  Even so, there’s no chance, none in the reality based world, that GW will ever be prosecuted for the war crimes he absolutely did commit (no question there, it’s a crime, period) so we probably should just accept that and move along.  

      1. Kitty Kelly has an anecdote in “The Family,” told to her by a federal judge, IIRC.  Seems he went looking for something to read to pass his insomnia time while visiting Daddy and Barb Bush before he was president.

        The only book in the house was one on fart jokes.

      2. Probably lifted stuff because, he can’t remember it, he can’t remember it clearly, the stuff he remembers did not occur, and finally if someone else wrote it he can claim ignorance when asked about it on the stand.

        When word leaked he had “written” a book (of any kind) I immediately posted “I doubt it”. Confirmed.

  3. The man’s not that interesting.  Even when most people would almost be forced to be.  It’s not “plagiarism”, it’s living vicariously.

    Someone needs to finish counting votes so everyone isn’t so bored.

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