Q. What’s the Difference Between
Lesbianism and Plagiarism?

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A. Nobody ever downloaded a hot plagiarism video.

Nor could lesbianism hurt Elena Kagan’s chances of being confirmed to the Supreme Court, whereas her role in a Harvard plagiarism scandal might be big trouble:

As Dean of Harvard Law School in 2004 and 2005 she treated two liberal law professors with kid gloves when they were busted for plagiarism. Her chicanery was so blatant that even a leftist academic said she should be fired for her “whitewash.”
Kagan’s essential absolution of both professors has been virtually unnoticed . . .
But the way she handled professors Larry Tribe and Charles Ogletree, when they both were caught swiping the words of others, seems to violate basic principles of fairness.
She let the professors off easy for the kind of offense that for which any Harvard undergraduate or law school would have been suspended if not expelled. . . .
As the [2004] controversy [over Ogletree’s plagiarism] festered, Harvard Law School professor Larry Tribe, a party line liberal, came to Ogletree’s defense. Tribe told the Boston Globe that Ogletree is someone who “because he often says yes to them many people all over the country who ask for help on all kinds of things, he has extended himself even farther than someone with all the energy can safely do.”
Tribe vouching for Ogletree’s character quickly sounded like Eliot Spitzer vouching for your monogamy.
A law professor who read about Tribe’s defense tipped off The Weekly Standard that Tribe’s 1985 book, God Save This Honourable Court, had purloined quite a bit from University of Virgina emeritus professor Henry Abraham’s acclaimed 1974 book, Justice and Presidents. . . .
In a lengthy article for his blog, Massachusetts School of Law Dean Lawrence Velvel said Kagan and Summers should have been axed for their “whitewash.”
He cited example after example of how Kagan and Tribe essentially offered excuses for the very actions they purported to condemn.

Evan Gahr has much more where that came from.

UPDATE: White House bristles at mention of Kagan’s sexuality:

“I’m just not going to get into somebody who is doing what that person was doing on CBS’s website. This is about who she is going to be as a justice,” Gibbs said.

“That person” is Ben Domenech, who might have something relevant to say about liberals and double standards.

UPDATE II: Why do right-wingers keep bringing up Kagan’s sexuality? You know, all those horrible, hateful, homophobes like Andrew Sullivan.

UPDATE III: Also sounding like a right-winger, Jane Hamsher:

“Accepting Kagan just because people like Obama is wrong. That’s appropriate for American Idol, not the Supreme Court. Nobody knows what she stands for but him. It’s just a cult of personality with Obama. This is the Supreme Court.”

Jane, you’re this close to a real breakthrough. I think we can help you. There’s this TV show that comes on at 5 p.m. Eastern on Fox News . . .

29 comments

  11. Can Elena sort the M&Ms like Harriot could? Because level of attention to detail is rather awesome.

  12. Can Elena sort the M&Ms like Harriot could? Because level of attention to detail is rather awesome.

  13. Q. What’s the Difference Between
    Lesbianism and Plagiarism?

    A: You can plagiarize by yourself.
    A: Plagiarism is still a crime.
    A: Hollywood celebrities are still ashamed to plagiarize.
    A: When two plagiarizers walk into a room, most men don’t care.
    A: Not even Joe Biden was in Joe Biden’s wildest dream.
    A: The difference between Amazons and Amazon.com

  14. Q. What’s the Difference Between
    Lesbianism and Plagiarism?

    A: You can plagiarize by yourself.
    A: Plagiarism is still a crime.
    A: Hollywood celebrities are still ashamed to plagiarize.
    A: When two plagiarizers walk into a room, most men don’t care.
    A: Not even Joe Biden was in Joe Biden’s wildest dream.
    A: The difference between Amazons and Amazon.com

  20. You know what the punishment is for students caught plagiarizing? That’s right, F for the class and possibly expulsion.

    Professors? Naaaahhh.

  21. You know what the punishment is for students caught plagiarizing? That’s right, F for the class and possibly expulsion.

    Professors? Naaaahhh.

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