Normally, if Military Religious Freedom Foundation founder Michael Weinstein is at a loss for words, he fills in the space with alliterative adjectives.  Yesterday, it seems he filled in the space with someone else’s words.

Michael Weinstein plagiarized a section of his passionate demand for an apology from Governor Mitt Romney for his “untruthfulness” about Glen Doherty.  From Weinstein’s piece, as published on the Huffington Post:

Romney did not mention the man’s name during the campaign event in Van Meter, but the Romney campaign later confirmed the former Navy SEAL was Glen Doherty, 42, one of the four Americans killed in the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi on Sept. 11, along with the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens.

The Romney campaign said that Romney met Doherty in 2009 or 2010, and that Romney did not know for sure that the man he met at the Christmas party a few years ago was the same man killed in Libya until a neighbor contacted Romney to inform him in the past few days.

From an actual reporter, Jon Ward, also on the Huffington Post, but published the day prior to Weinstein:

Romney did not mention the man’s name, but the Romney campaign confirmed the former SEAL was Glen Doherty, 42, one of the four Americans killed in the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi on Sept. 11, along with the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens.

The campaign said that Romney met Doherty in 2009 or 2010, and that Romney did not know for sure that the man he met at the Christmas party a few years ago was the same man killed in Libya until a neighbor contacted Romney to inform him in the past few days.

Besides copying other people’s Huffington Post pieces, Weinstein has had other issues of being fully forthright, like his math-challenged claim he “spent 10 years in the Air Force as a JAG” or his propensity for infringing on copyrights — so many, in fact, he finally took the advice offered here. In this piece, Weinstein included 17 hyperlinks — 12 of which went directly to his own site or words, and not one of which went to the article from which his words were lifted.

Weinstein’s hypocrisy wasn’t limited to his lack of integrity.  He also accused Governor Romney of an “absolutely disgusting, opportunistic travesty” for talking about Doherty’s death.

“Opportunistic?”

Recently, Weinstein and his research assistant Chris Rodda came unglued when it was pointed out Weinstein kept talking about himself when the media asked him questions about the life and man, Glen Doherty — something he continued to do in this very piece, after the plagiarized paragraph.  Weinstein’s drive for publicity apparently knows no bounds nor discretion; he likely saw the nearly 2,000 comments on the Jon Ward piece and just had to jump on the band wagon.  (Weinstein’s blog drew less than 10 comments.)  Weinstein even went so far as to say Doherty “fully supported” his MRFF agenda — and included, as evidence, links to nine examples — none of which mentioned a thing about Doherty, and one that even occurred after Doherty’s death.

Something about stones and glass houses comes to mind.

For the record, a self-described 20-year friend of Glen Doherty similarly decried the political use of the fallen Navy SEAL’s story — but he never once mentioned Weinstein or the MRFF.  In fact [emphasis added]:

[Elf] Ellefsen said he understands why people would want to link themselves with Doherty. “Of all people to tie yourself to for advancement in life, it’s not surprising that Romney or anybody else would want to tie themselves to Glen Doherty. Because he was incredible. And I can honestly say beyond a shadow of a doubt, he was the greatest person I have ever met in my life.”

Wonder if Ellefsen had Weinstein’s efforts to tie his political agenda to Doherty in mind when he said that.

Think Michael Weinstein’s plagiarism or opportunism likewise merits the demand for “a timely and heartfelt apology?”