Post by Moses on Mar 4, 2005 10:45:54 GMT -5
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Congressman apologizes for 'borrowing' speech from 'Bama auditor
By BRENDAN RILEY
The Associated Press
3/4/2005, 8:40 a.m. CT
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) -- Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., apologized Thursday for what he termed the inadvertent recycling of an Alabama Republican's liberal-bashing speech she gave in 2003 — without giving her any credit for the remarks.
In a recent Lincoln Day dinner in Elko, Gibbons, a likely candidate for governor next year, praised efforts of American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and accused liberals, movie stars and singers of "trying to divide this country."
"I say we tell those liberal, tree-hugging, Birkenstock-wearing, hippie, tie-dyed liberals to go make their movies and their music and whine somewhere else," he said.
Gibbons also questioned whether people against war "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."
The lines mirrored copyrighted remarks by Alabama State Auditor Beth Chapman in March 2003 at a support-the-troops rally. Chapman said people should support the president and "tell the liberal, tree-hugging, hippie, tie-died liberals to go make their movies and music and whine somewhere else."
Chapman also asked if antiwar types "can possibly be the same people who are for abortion? They are the same people who are for animal rights but against the rights of the unborn."
Gibbons said "some time back" he got an e-mail with the words but "certainly didn't know the text was a speech or that it was copyrighted. When I found out, the first thing I did was call Ms. Beth Chapman to apologize."
"We had a nice chat and she was very cordial and understanding," Gibbons said, adding that had he known she was the author he would have credited her.
State Democratic Party spokesman Jon Summers said the use of Chapman's remarks is "just another example of disappointing leadership by Jim Gibbons."
"First, they were outrageous and offensive remarks. And now we find out those words aren't even his own," Summers said. "He stole them from somebody else."
Gibbons' comments in Elko came a week after he apologized for calling those who oppose corporate donations for President Bush's inaugural parties "communists."
Chapman has said she wrote the speech in 30 minutes and got several standing ovations when she delivered it. What eventually became known as "The Speech" hit the Internet and made the little-known public official a celebrity. She received e-mails and letters from across the nation and from many foreign countries.
Chapman even wrote a scrapbook-style, self-published book that describes how she gave the speech and the reaction that it prompted. There are scores of Internet references to the speech — all of them crediting Chapman as the author.
