Copycat Republicans Get Caught

This is a funny story that I picked up from the Hotline blog: seven Republican candidates used the National Republican Congressional Committee's talking points, word for word, to answer the AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired People)'s fabled questionnaire on issues like Medicaid and Social Security.

AARP claims to represent anywhere around 25-35 million people, not an insignificant number, and their voter's guides are valued as being fairly nonpartisan. So when you get caught copying pat answers, it's like being exposed as the cheating test-copying fraud that you were in sixth grade, only instead of a classroom, it's only the national and local political stage.

The Republican candidates caught cheating?

Andrea Zinga and Peter Roskam, both running in Illinois
Jeff Lamberti in Iowa
Chuck Blasdel in Ohio
Max Burns in Georgia

The funniest response was this disastrous attempt to spin the answer:

Van Taylor's campaign in Texas said the language helps the candidate understand the issues.

"It's only natural when we were running for Congress, he wanted to become as knowledgeable as he could on the issues," said Casey Phillips, Taylor's campaign manager.

The issue echoes 2004, when at least five Republican candidates lifted passages for the same survey.

Taylor should fire his manager, who apparently has come not to praise him, but to bury him. He's revealed two very embarassing things about his boss that voters in the 17th Congressional district of Texas should be aware of: 1) he's so dumb he can't wrap his mind around two of the most important domestic issues and 2) he's so dumb he got caught cheating. Actually, the last reveals something pressing about Taylor's idiot of a manager: he's so lazy he can't be bothered to come up with his own ideas. More rubberstamping of Bush's agenda, please!

But perhaps voters will reward Taylor for his lack of original thought and robotic copy and pasting, since Taylor is running to represent a district that includes Waco, home of the Branch Davidian cult, and President Bush's Crawford ranch.

What is surprising is that Taylor's website doesn't prominently show "Republican" anywhere on the front page. Maybe he wants to parrot lines while he's running away from the party? Here's to a man who wants to have his cake and eat it too!

Bonus points to the Democratic response which was sharp and on target:

"Nothing makes it more clear that Republicans stand for 'more of the same' in Washington than these plagiarized surveys," said Sarah Feinberg, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's press secretary.

So embarassing to get caught peering at other people's exams. Fifteen points from Taylor, for the laziness that comes from lies!