Page 28 - Flathead Beacon // 7.30.14

28 | JULY 30, 2014
LIKE I WAS SAYIN’ Kellyn Brown
Walsh’s Uphill Battle
IT’S DIFFICULT TO SEE HOW DEMOCRAT JOHN Walsh can recover following the New York Times in- vestigation that showed he partially plagiarized a re- search project required for his master’s degree while at the U.S. Army War College.
Yes, politicians have recovered from far worse, but Walsh already faced an uphill battle, trailing in the polls in a state where President Barack Obama is deeply unpopu- lar. Following the revelations by reporter Jonathan Mar- tin, the reaction among the state and national media was swift – with many taking to Twitter to declare the race es- sentially over.
Longtime political analyst Jeff Greenfield wrote, “I sus- pect some MT Dems are looking at state’s election laws to see if it’s too late to change their Senate candidate.”
Slate’s senior political reporter Dave Weigel: “Anyway, congrats to Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT).”
And former Billings Gazette editor Steve Prosinski add- ed: “John Walsh had slim chance of victory in MT. After his plagiarism scandal, the Democrat’s odds? Almost zilch.”
Attached to Prozsinki’s tweet was a link to a story out- lining the long odds of Walsh making a comeback, especial- ly since before the story broke the senator hadn’t led his op- ponent, Republican Steve Daines, in a single survey.
Nonetheless, Walsh has no plans of dropping out of the race and said he made an “unintentional mistake” by leav- ing out a “few citations.” The state’s Democrats, including Gov. Steve Bullock and U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, have rallied to his side.
“It’s a hit, but it’s not a death knell,” Tester told Politico. “And I think absolutely, once the facts are out, people will understand it.”
Right now, however, the facts don’t look good for Walsh. After the Times broke the story, the Associated Press re- viewed the 14-page paper and found that it “includes a se- ries of unattributed passages taken from the writings of other scholars.” And now the Army War College is conduct- ing its own investigation.
Walsh has said he wrote the paper while suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Iraq, was on medication and grappling with a fellow soldier’s recent sui- cide. Walsh later clarified those comments, telling KMMS Radio in Bozeman that “I am in no way ... tying what I did to any type of PTSD.”
Other politicians, such as Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Vice President Joe Biden, have been accused of plagiarism and faced varying consequences. Paul was accused of lift- ing passages for his book and a series of columns he wrote for the Washington Times. Paul acknowledged he should have been more careful and the issue basically went away. He is now mulling a presidential bid. Joe Biden, on the oth- er hand, dropped out of the 1988 race for president after it was revealed that he had plagiarized portions of his stump speeches from a variety of sources.
Now more than ever, a political candidate’s college pa- pers, traffic citations and investments will be pored over in the run-up to Election Day. The New York Times won’t say how it obtained the Walsh story, but as the Associated Press reported, “it looked like the product of classic opposi- tion research” – that is, the million-dollar business of dig- ging up dirt on political opponents.
It will be interesting to see where Walsh stands after the next round of poll numbers are released. Just days be- fore the Times report, his campaign had sent a press re- lease touting recent results from Public Policy Polling that showed him within 7 points of Daines, a 10-point gain since November.
There is a lot of time before Election Day to change the narrative in this race. But most everyone who has looked at the document agrees this is not simply a case of poor cita- tion and to maintain that this was an unintentional mis- take will do little to put the issue to rest.
OPINION FLATHEADBEACON.COM
TWO FOR THOUGHT
Local Topics, Opposing Views
State of the Senate Race
By Joe Carbonari
In my opinion John Walsh has been offered a way out. It seems to me that it would benefit all if he simply withdrew from the Senate race and served out the term to which he was appointed.
Walsh is not a strong candidate, and his chances of winning seem slight. He will surely suffer personal attacks beyond what he deserves should he stay in the race. If he were to withdraw now he could claim the high ground of choosing service to the people of Montana, and to the na- tion, over staging a fight for the restoration of his good name – in the tradition of self-sacrifice for the good of the country – while maintaining the service credit that he deserves.
Walsh would have to withdraw by Aug. 8, and the Montana Democratic Party would have to re-nominate by the 20th, for a new candidate to get on the November ballot. No doubt Brian Schweitzer’s name has come up.
Brian has both supporters and detractors, but unquestionably he would make a strong can- didate and have a great story to sell. While both his visibility and scrutiny would be intense, my guess is that he would feed on them both, and it does not seem his nature to shirk from a battle.
Whoever or whatever happens, let’s hope that it improves the quality of our political pro- cess. It sorely needs it.
By Tim Baldwin
News reports revealed that John Walsh committed academic plagiarism to earn his master’s degree from the United States Army War College in 2007. Wikipedia.org notes that “plagiarism by students is ... a very seri- ous offense that can result in punishments such as a failing grade ... or even being ex- pelled from the institution.” But to Walsh, Montanans should overlook this fraud and elect him to one of the highest and most pow- erful offices in the United States.
What makes Walsh’s behavior more de- spicable is that when confronted with his plagiarism, he stated he didn’t believe he did anything wrong, even though his aide “did not contest the apparent plagiarism,” accord- ing to a New York Times report. Walsh tried to excuse his fraud by blaming it on stress. So, what fraud will Walsh commit in D.C. when faced with political stress?
Since our laws make it virtually impossi- ble for third parties to successfully challenge the Democrat and Republican candidates in the primary and general elections, those who normally vote Democrat are stuck with vot- ing for a man whose honesty is more than suspect. I think we can do better with our election laws and political candidates.
GUESTCOLUMN | FredCarl
Give Students Right Environment Unencumbered by Tenure
Recently, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled that California’s tough teacher-tenure laws are unconstitutional.
His ruling is based on a 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that tenure laws infringed on a student’s right to an equal education. Educators are now con- cerned that their lucrative “impregnable” contracts may be jeopardized.
Karen Moses, Montana Education Association employee and former Billings school board trustee, said, “It gives more fuel to the fire to those who’d like to dismantle (tenure),” which “could be a distraction to real problems.”
Ms. Moses, open your eyes and realize the real problems in education are tenure, the MEA union and Common Core. It is evident that our education- al system has greatly deteriorated over the years. Here are the results from a major study conducted in 2010 of 470,000 15-year-olds in 65 countries, tak- en by the Program for International Student Assess- ment. The United States ranked No. 14 in reading, No. 25 in math and No. 17 in science.
Adding to Moses’ statement, Scott McCulloch, president of the Billings Education Association, said tenure protects teachers from “arbitrary” firing. Mr. McCulloch, in the real world firings happen.
If our country is going to again be the envy of the world, it will have to be rebuilt by today’s students. That requires teachers who are capable, and will- ing, to actually teach. You pointed out that teachers go through a three-year probationary period before they are awarded tenure, during which time they are evaluated twice a year.
So what you are saying is that teachers are pass-
ing their twice a year evaluation and granted tenure, yet statistics reveal we continue to have an inade- quate educational system. So Mr. McCulloch, where does the failure lie? Is it with the school administra- tors; with the evaluation process; with the inability on the part of the teachers; with an inadequate col- lege education prior to becoming teachers; with the lack of discipline, or with laws restricting the ability to discipline? Maybe it’s the Legislature not enact- ing stringent legislation requiring certain results, or giving the board of education the authority to en- act rules as they see fit.
Many wonder if our students can learn and ab- sorb more than they are presently given. The an- swer – yes they can!
I grew up in Buffalo New York, and my younger brother and I had the benefit of attending a private day school even though our father had died when I was 14. In New York state all public school students had to take, and pass, a regents exam in each course before moving up to next year’s level. (Going from Spanish I into Spanish II.) We, on the other hand, took a regents Spanish II final to move into the sec- ond semester, accomplishing in half a year what public school students took two years to complete.
As a freshman at Purdue, I took biology and it covered the same material I had in high school. So students can do the work if they are required to.
Montana students can, and will, achieve more if we create the proper environment. We are handing them a tremendous mess, so let’s at least provide a better education, unencumbered by tenure and an obstructionist union.
Fred Carl of Missoula is a former state legislator