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Announcer: The David Pakman Show at www.DavidPakman.com.
David: Back on The David Pakman Show. A few more things to talk about before we wrap up.
Scott Brown seems to have a little bit of a plagiarism problem, even though he says
this is no problem at all, and he's not going to be talking about it any more, so there.
This is apparently a simple mistake. He was copying and pasting Elizabeth Dole's website
template to create his own campaign website, and it turns out that a piece of one of...
a speech she gave made it onto... and part of her platform made it onto his website.
Here's some reporting about that from CNN.
Rodell Mollineau: ... Massachusetts are going to see that.
Reporter: Scott Brown's office was quick to push back, arguing in no way was this intended
plagiarism. They say young staffers were eager to get a website up and running after Brown
took office after a special election. In their haste, they made a big mistake.
Quote, "Senator Dole's website served as one of the models for Senator Brown's website
when he first took office. During construction of the site, the content of this particular
page was inadvertantly transferred without being rewritten. It was a staff-level oversight
which we regret and has been corrected."
David: OK, so the thing is, it appears to just be flatly untrue, because it wasn't all
just copied over, there actually were some edits made, including a part where Elizabeth
Dole talks about her childhood, right?
Monte: Her own parents. She mentions her parents by name as the first line of the original
quote, which is mysteriously missing from Scott Brown's website. So somebody looked
at that.
David: Right.
Monte: Somebody said I know this is somebody else's, but I'm going to edit it just ever
so slightly. When that happened, could it have been a staffer or some intern? Very likely.
David: It was a technical...
Monte: Was it probably Scott Brown in the middle of the night? No.
David: Of course it wasn't Scott Brown, but it... so it's a technical error, because they
just copied it over, except for the part that made it abundantly clear that it was about
a different person, because Scott Brown's parents are different people than Elizabeth
Dole's parents.
Monte: Unless they're not. That's where the real controversy lies.
David: Maybe that's the revelation, Scott Brown's parents are the same, he's actually
Elizabeth Dole's brother.
Monte: Dole bananas turn brown when they're too old, Scott Brown... plot thickens.
David: This... I like... I kind of like the idea that this is a technical error. It's
actually kind of a relief for me, because now I realize I am made of matter, and thus
I am subject to the laws of physics; I am now exempt from any mistake, blunder, or lie,
because it's just a technical error of some kind. I am...
Monte: You can blame it on Louis.
David: I can blame it on Louis, I can blame it on anything.
This is not going to really hurt Scott Brown, I don't think, in his potential reelection
campaign, but this isn't the first time that this has happened. We've had other politicians
take pieces of speeches and put them into their own speeches, and it's probably happening
a lot more than is ever actually noticed. Only sometimes we notice it; it's probably
pretty common.
Monte: The thing that bothers me about this is that Scott Brown just doesn't want to talk
about it anymore.
David: Right, he's decided.
Monte: So just chalk it up to a technological glitch and leave it at that. Some out and
out apology for yes, I should've been on top of this, this wasn't my quote, maybe I believe
in much of the sentiment, but I won't put quotes on my website anymore that aren't actually
from me would suffice to not want to talk about it anymore, but it doesn't seem that
he's gone that far, from anything I've read.
David: No. The other thing is, also, when are politicians now able to decide when an
issue is done? I thought that was kind of part of the press and other politicians and
people who bring things up. He now can just decide that the topic is done. I don't understand
that.
Monte: Anthony *** tried to pretend that the topic was done as well.
David: He told Dana Bash from CNN this is it, this is not a real story, this is not
something that's worth spending any time on, it just... this is nonsense, there's no story
here. And as we found out, it wasn't true. It wasn't true at all, there was... there
was a hell of a story there. There was... well, I think we know what happened.
Monte: Yeah, the rest is history.
David: We don't need to necessarily rehash the entire thing.
Monte: We saw it up-close.
David: It's a hell of a situation. Will it come up again?
Monte: You mean Anthony ***?
David: No, no, no, no.
Monte: Oh.
David: Well, that's a good... is Anthony *** going to be back?
Monte: It certainly will come up again.
David: OK.
Monte: I mean, look at his track record.
David: And Scott Brown? Is he going to talk about this again, or is he...
Monte: No, and this will fade into the Netherworld.
David: He's actually done.
Monte: Yeah.
David: All right. Well, thanks to Monte Belmonte, we found out, who's actually Chris Belmonte.
Do you not go by Chris because it's too Jewy, Christopher?
Monte: [Laughs] That's as Christian as it gets!
David: Right.
Monte: My mother still calls me that, as does my wife.
David: Oh, really?
Monte: You can call me that.
David: All right, well, Chris, thank you for being on the show, and that's the whole show.
That's it. Louis will be back, he's still got a week to go, but we will have more guest
co-hosts for you. Check out the bonus show at www.DavidPakman.com.
Announcer: The David Pakman Show at www.DavidPakman.com.
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