Remember Edward Wegman, the George Mason University statistician whose climate denial was repeatedly cited by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli? The one who was under investigation on charges of plagiarism & inaccuracy?
The GMU investigation is still dragging on, but USA Today asked several scientists to review the allegations against Wegman. Their analysis was damning:
The plagiarism experts queried by USA TODAY disagree after viewing the Wegman report:
- “Actually fairly shocking,” says Cornell physicist Paul Ginsparg by e-mail. “My own preliminary appraisal would be ‘guilty as charged.'”
- “If I was a peer reviewer of this report and I was to observe the paragraphs they have taken, then I would be obligated to report them,” says Garner of Virginia Tech, who heads a copying detection effort. “There are a lot of things in the report that rise to the level of inappropriate.”
- “The plagiarism is fairly obvious when you compare things side-by-side,” says Ohio State’s Robert Coleman, who chairs OSU’s misconduct committee.
If Ken Cuccinelli was a man, he’d apologize. To Michael Mann, the respected climate scientist whose work Cuccinelli has quixotically targeted. To Virginia taxpayers, for wasting their money on a political witch hunt. And to his own supporters for feeding them a steady stream of complete horse manure.
But Ken Cuccinelli doesn’t have a shred of honor or dignity in his body. I expect him to continue to ignore reality & continue flaunting the truth. For all of Republicans’ ranting against fraud & abuse, Ken Cuccinelli has no problem using your tax dollars to campaign for Sarah Palin’s affection on the 2012 Crazy Train Ticket.
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