June 20, 2005

WITH JOE BIDEN RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT, we're likely to hear more about the rather lame plagiarism scandal that sunk him in 1988.

You can read a defense of Biden in that role, from my book (with Peter Morgan), The Appearance of Impropriety, if you like. I think that Biden was shafted by the Dukakis campaign, with help from the press, and that the whole flap was silly.

Biden's candidacy ought to be sunk by his sponsorship of the "R.A.V.E. act," targeting electronic music performances as havens for drugs, and by his shameless water-carrying for the entertainment industry on copyright issues. But since those are issues of substance, I suspect we'll hear more about the plagiarism story.