The right’s “plagiarism” scam: How low it will stoop to protect Reagan’s legacy

A right-wing operative is mad Rick Perlstein's new book calls Reagan into question. Here's his pathetic response

David Dayen

Last week, I published an interview with Rick Perlstein, author of “The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan.” And this week, as the book gets released, Perlstein has been mired in a ginned-up scandal, validated by he-said/she-said journalism from the New York Times.

According to a Reagan biographer who currently serves as the publicist for Ann Coulter, Perlstein is a serial plagiarist. Only this accuser has defined plagiarism down to “quoting with full attribution” and “using the same historical facts.” The resulting controversy has enmeshed Perlstein in a political war he had no idea he was fighting. “I feel like a character in one of my books,” he told Salon.