Demagogue

This item is about eight weeks old, but it seems to have escaped the blogosphere's attention. After all the hard work that Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) invested to succeed Tom DeLay as House Majority Leader, Boehner apparently wanted to add duplicity to the list of offenses committed by the person holding that title.

From the weblog of the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

When the Cincinnati Enquirer put together a ''special report" Sunday on the No Child Left Behind Act, House Majority Leader John Boehner was asked to contribute an op-ed piece about the law.

Boehner is a powerful Republican from suburban Cincinnati who pushed No Child Left Behind through Congress. His bylined article ran under a six-column headline across an entire page that proclaimed, "'No Child' Act Historic Shift for America."

But what Boehner delivered for the Enquirer wasn't news and certainly wasn't original. He had already written the same piece 26 months earlier for TruthNews, which bills itself as a Christian-operated Internet news magazine.

The Enquirer wanted Boehner ''to react to the findings of our special report on No Child Left Behind." It looks like he punked the newspaper by plagiarizing himself.

Here's Boehner's opening paragraph for the Cincinnati Enquirer on March 5, 2006:

''Recently, we marked the fourth anniversary of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) education reforms. Ever since President Bush came to Hamilton to sign this measure into law, much has been made of the progress and promise of NCLB. And for good reason. It represents the single greatest shift in federal education policy in more than a generation."

Here's Boehner's opening paragraph for TruthNews on Jan. 9, 2004:

Recently, we marked the second anniversary of the No Child Left Behind education reforms. Ever since President Bush came to Hamilton to sign this measure into law, much has been made of the progress and promise of No Child Left Behind. And for good reason. It represents the single greatest shift in federal education policy in more than a generation. It was President Bush's first domestic policy initiative -- and continues to be his most important."