DOMENECH: Getting the youth vote

Why does the Washington Times print articles by Ben Domenech? He has admitted to plagiarism but shown no remorse. Give an untainted author a chance.

Domenech writes that conservatives, "must outlaw the kind of tone-deaf antics that reinforce preexisting caricatures." This is a bit hypocritical coming from someone who dismissed Coretta Scott King as a "communist" on the day of her funeral.

Domenech is wrong on a number of points, but especially on this: "...the Republican presidential candidates your average Millennial Generation voter remembers are Bob Dole, George W. Bush, and Mr. McCain." Dole and McKane were sorry candidates. George Bush, while not the greatest speaker, got out the vote in a big way, and won 2 elections for president. Someone with George Bush's characteristics and an ability to speak would make a formidable candidate.

Ben Domenech got caught plagiarising. faced with the evidence he lied and said: “In a lot of this stuff, it’s based on who you believe. And if you believe the lefties are right or if you believe someone who you know and who you’ve worked with is right, I guess the thing I would point out is that I’ve done my best to never do anything to raise any kind of question about this sort of thing. And if you look at the overwhelming bulk of everything I’ve written, you’ll find there is no question about it. The questions are about small things, a lot of them easily explainable, especially the things that come after college.” He later made a full confession. Pathetic

National Review March 24, 2006 As we mentioned in our earlier editor's note, staff here at National Review Online are going through all of the pieces Ben Domenech has written for us (the most recent of which appears to have been published in 2002) in light of questions raised in the wake of the debut of his "Red America" blog this week on the Washington Post's website (from which he has since resigned). Our review unfortunately raises questions about several other pieces besides the one we apologized for this morning.

Wow this is fun. Domenech's initial (false) denials about being a plagiarist caused his supporters to write drivel like this on redstate: "Permissions obtained and judgments made offline were not reflected online by an out dated and out of business campus newspaper. But that’s all the opponents want - just enough to sabotage a career, though in the process they will sabotage themselves. Facts have no meaning. Only impressions have any bearing on this. The charges of plagarism are false, meant to bring down a good and honest man. The presented facts to prove plagarism are specious — products of shoddy work. One could easily think the producers of 60 Minutes II were behind them."

My favorite moment in the Domemench fiasco was after Ben finally admitted to plagiarism in the face of incontrovertible proof. A Director of Redstate wrote the following in response to bloggers exposing Domenech's plagiarism and lies: "Should the entire American Left fall over dead tomorrow, I would rejoice, and order pizza to celebrate. They are not my countrymen; they are animals who happen to walk upright and make noises that approximate speech. They are below human. I look forward to seeing each and every one in Hell." Seriously, a director of Redstate wrote this.