FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 23, 2010
Contact: Andrew Welhouse – 608-257-4765

VINEHOUT ADMITS PLAGIARISM

MADISON – “Trust me, it’s not that big a deal” is a phrase a lot of politicians use.

But Kathleen Vinehout’s self-admitted plagiarism is a big deal, both because of the questions it raises and the message it sends.

“Ultimately, the people of western Wisconsin are going to decide whether it’s a big deal or not, so Kathleen Vinehout will have her answer soon enough,” said Mark Jefferson, executive director of the Republican Party of Wisconsin.  “But having your spouse do your speaking for you, especially when he’s a former advisor to Rod Blagojevich, doesn’t just go away with a wave of the hand.”

Vinehout admitted multiple charges of plagiarism today, by claiming in the La Crosse Tribune that “you can't steal something from your spouse when he says, ‘Here, take this and use it if you like.’” (La Crosse Tribune, Monday, August 23)

“So if a student at UW-La Crosse or Eau Claire says her brother, or her boyfriend, takes a paper he wrote last year and says ‘here, take this and use it if you like,’ that’s fine to turn in as your own work?  If she believes that, Kathleen Vinehout has some serious questions to answer about who’s really been represeing her district for the last four years,” said Scott Fitzgerald, Republican leader of the state Senate.

In 1988, Joe Biden was forced out of the 1988 presidential race because of a plagiarism scandal.  Earlier this month, Colorado GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis lost his state’s primary, partially because of allegations of plagiariasm in a previous job.  Even during the last presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton attempted to make hay out of Barack Obama’s borrowed phrases in a campaign speech.

“She can defend her record in Madison all she wants,” Jefferson said.  “But from now on, whenever Kathleen Vinehout opens her mouth, you have to wonder whose voice is going to come out.”

Background:

Background on Vinehout’s husband, Charles Kane:

• “Kane is a former member of the Illinois Legislature, and as recently as 2007 was an adviser to tainted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.” (Source: Scott Fitzgerald op-ed: La Crosse Tribune August 22, 2010)
• “Kane is an economist who was paid $125/hr by disgraced Governor Rod Blagojevich to push the Gross Receipts Tax on Illinois (Source: CERS Press Release: Senator Kathleen Vinehout Guilty of Plagiarism August 10, 2010) legislature rejected it after numerous economic experts criticized the plan as ‘misguided’.  Kane is married to Senator Kathleen Vinehout and currently serves on the Alma School Board.” jobs, a $7.1 billion tax so unpopular that the Democrat-controlled
• Example of plagiarism:  Vinehout lifted nearly every word, all but 5 sentences, for a column she wrote in her official capacity as a State Senator directly from a piece of work by economist Kane. (http://www.legis.wi.gov/senate/sen31/news/Press/2008/col2008-069.asp vs. http://taxtales.blogspot.com/2007/03/does-good-business-tax-climate-make.html).
• The Tax Foundation reports that the business tax Kane and Blagojevich pushed was “one of the most economically damaging ways for states to extract revenue, and economists from all ends of the political spectrum are nearly unanimous in their opposition to them.”  Kane and Blagojevich’s $7.1 billion tax on small business would have been the largest single-year tax increase this decade, and would have moved the Illinois from 22^nd to the 9^th highest tax state in the country. (http://www.taxfoundation.org/blog/show/22362.html)