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Gibbons speech was plagiarized

By DAVE WOODSON, Free Press Staff Writer
Thursday, March 3, 2005 4:01 PM PST

Rep. Jim Gibbons

ELKO - The speech delivered by U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., during Friday night's Lincoln Day Dinner in Elko was largely plagiarized from a copyrighted speech by Alabama State Auditor Beth Chapman.

Chapman told the Elko Daily Free Press this morning Gibbons had not requested permission to use her speech, which she said she delivered Feb. 2, 2003, at a Stand Up for America rally in Alabama.

She said Gibbons apologized today for using large portions of her speech.

"I spoke with him this morning and he has apologized," she said.

Chapman, a Republican, said Gibbons told her he did not realize the speech was copyrighted.

During his speech at Friday night's Lincoln Day Dinner, Gibbons did not mention that the speech had been written and previously delivered by Chapman.

"I don't remember where I got it," Gibbons said this morning. "I had no idea it was copyrighted."

He said he believed the speech had been e-mailed to him.

"I have no idea," Gibbons said. "I think it was sent to me, cut-and-paste."

Chapman's speech is 21 paragraphs in length, of which Gibbons used 15 paragraphs word-for-word in his Lincoln Day address.

"It was just some wording that was sent to me," he said. "It reflected my thoughts."

Chapman, who said people could read her speech on her Web site, www.bethchapman.com, said she had mixed emotions when asked whether it bothered her that Gibbons delivered her speech.

"Yes and no," she said, adding that when she incorporates other people's material into her own remarks, "I usually mention that."

However, Chapman said she was glad the residents of Elko had an opportunity to hear her speech.

"He gave the same speech I would have," she said. "I wish I had been there to give it."

She said the speech was initially written shortly before the outbreak of the War in Iraq when the Alabama National Guard was expecting mobilization.

Gibbons is under fire from Nevada Democrats for his speech in general and particularly the lines: "I say we tell those liberal, tree-hugging, Birkenstock stocking wearing, hippie, tie-dyed liberals to go make their movies and their music and whine somewhere else."

Those words, with the exception of "I say," were taken verbatim from Chapman's speech.

Gibbons said if war protesters lived in Iraq or Afghanistan, "Ironically they would be put to death at the hands of Saddam Hussein or Osama Bin Laden," another quote that also came directly from Chapman's speech.

The comments that drew the strongest response from the Lincoln Day crowd also were from Chapman's speech.

"I want to know how these very people who are against war because of loss of life can possibly be the same people who are for abortion? They are the same people who are for animal rights, but they are not for the rights of the unborn," Gibbons said Friday night, again word for word from Chapman's copyrighted address.

Attacks on movie stars and other entertainers for their opposition to the War in Iraq that Gibbons voiced at the dinner also came from Chapman's speech.

"It expressed what I wanted to express," Gibbons said.

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