Robert Schmetzer – 3/26/08

This page was last updated on March 27, 2008.

Greeted as a victor; Robert Schmetzer; Beaver County Times; March 26, 2008.

3/27/08 - On the Times website I posted a comment noting Mr. Schmetzer’s plagiarism described at the bottom of this critique. My purpose was to show readers how Mr. Schmetzer’s allies would respond, and those allies were kind enough to cooperate. As I expected, Mr. Schmetzer’s fellow travelers came to his defense, using comments like “Whoever wrote this piece, it makes an excellent point” (Carl Davidson) and “Whoever wrote it, it’s a very good piece” (William Horter) and attempts to change the subject. Unfortunately, the comments from those who recognized plagiarism weren’t much better than those trying to provide cover for Mr. Schmetzer.

Since Mr. Davidson is a published author, I wonder if he would be so forgiving if people lifted his work and presented it as their own. I don’t know Mr. Davidson, so it’s possible he wouldn’t care.

I critiqued seven previous Schmetzer letters and they are usually broken records. A 2004 letter asserted Republicans were “driving Americans into the ground.” That letter claimed the GOP planned “to reflect their commitment to defend our homeland by reintroducing the draft in 2005” despite the fact Democrats were the only guys talking about reinstating the draft. Other letters resurrected the Cheney/Halliburton talking point, lobbied for VP Cheney’s impeachment, lobbied for surrender in Iraq, and blamed President Bush for a mine cave-in. Breaking the trend were letters lobbying for a government-run, taxpayer-funded healthcare system and another expressing panic at offshoring.

According to the BC Democrats website, Mr. Schmetzer is the local town chair for South Heights. Why doesn’t the Times mention this association in an editor’s note when it publishes Mr. Schmetzer’s letters?

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“At last, the president has been greeted in Iraq by an outpouring of hugs, kisses and rose petals, just as the Bushites predicted would happen when they invaded that country in 2003.

“Unfortunately, though, it wasn’t George Bush getting the love treatment from the Iraqis. It was Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

“Oh, the political irony. The man whom Bush considers the devil, the one he accuses of promoting terrorism in Iraq, that man was lauded by Iraq’s leaders, who were supposed to be grateful to Bush.

“Has Bush not sacrificed the lives of 4,000 American sons and daughters to try to impose a western-style democracy in Iraq? Has he not committed trillions of dollars from our treasury to war and nation building in Iraq? Has he not sacrificed America’s good name and his own political standing in his hell-bent effort to make Iraq a bulwark against Iranian dominance in the Middle East?

“Yet, Ahmadinejad was praised by the very government that Bush put into power. The Iranian was the only foreign leader to be given a full-dress state reception, including a red-carpet treatment at the Presidential Palace.

“Contrast that to Bush’s trips to Iraq, where he has to be rushed in under total secrecy and fearful security, then rushed out again before people know he has been there.

“And while the Bush administration frantically scrambles to get even the weakest concessions from the Iraq government that our troops are so valiantly defending, Iraq’s prime minister threw himself at Ahmadinejad, declaring there ‘are no limits to the cooperation that we are going to open up with our neighbor Iran.’

“So, America’s sacrifice in Iraq comes down to a victory for Iran. Way to go, George.”

[RWC] From beginning to end, this letter is nearly word-for-word plagiarism of an op-ed piece written by Mr. Schmetzer’s fellow leftist, Jim Hightower. The piece was originally published on Mr. Hightower’s website on March 12th and then the following day on Star-Telegram.com as part of a larger op-ed column entitled When Exxon mobilizes. The only differences between this letter and Mr. Hightower’s piece appear to be the edits Mr. Schmetzer and/or the Times apparently needed to get the letter within the Times 300-word limit. As written by Mr. Hightower, the piece was 310 words according to Microsoft Word.

I wonder how many of Mr. Schmetzer’s previous letters were the result of plagiarism.

Perhaps Mr. Schmetzer considers U.S. Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) to be a role model. Yes, that was a cheap shot.