Yes, I hate Politico, but here's their write-up, which has some key passages side-by-side. Notice two things, which get my professor-ly hackles up. Plagiarist-Gorsuch (his new name) borrows long passages word-for-word, but he also breaks a few things up. He changes just a few words, here and there, just to make it seem like he is doing something slightly different. Standard scumbag, shit-sucking plagiarist trick. Like I'm going to give you credit for that. No fucking way, you plagiarist motherfucker! When you change just a few words, you know exactly what you are doing, and exactly why you are doing it, and fuck you for insulting my intelligence by suggesting that I might be stupid enough to believe otherwise.
Why did he think he could get away with it? To be blunt, a lot of plagiarism in the world doesn't get caught. He was lazy, dishonest, and thought he could get away with it. The passages were either historical or scientific, and he decided not to try to re-work them. It was actually kind of understandable. The intellectual components of the book, as far as I understand right now, were Gorsuch's own doing. He didn't take other peoples' ideas and claim them as his own, which would have been worse. He was trying to speed through the boring part of writing and get to the fun part. I get it. Some parts of writing suck, and as plagiarism in academia goes, there's worse out there. He still did something dishonest out of laziness. And he would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for those meddling kids. (And being put under the microscope of a SCOTUS nomination). Frankly, he probably forgot he did it. As Rick Perry would say, "oops."
So, the Senate is probably about to break its rules to confirm a fucking plagiarist. How appropriate. (We must now add at least some possibility that Gorsuch's nomination is thrown out, but all he really needs to do is apologize).
Oh, and kids: don't try this shit on me and expect Mitch McConnell to save you with the nuclear option.
As a side-note, what is it with Trump and plagiarists? Melania, Monica Crowley, Gorsuch...
