In September's Atlantic Monthly, Matthew Scully begins a series deflating Michael Gerson, George W. Bush's putative speech writing genius. It seems many speeches Gerson supposedly wrote, and for which he took credit, were written by others.

Of course, in politics, taking credit for others' words is nothing new. Joe Biden's plagiarism of British Labor leader Neil Kinnock's speech comes to mind. But I bet you didn't know that Reagan/ Bush 41 speech writer Peggy Noonan, touted as an eloquent Conservative spokesperson, is little more than a plagiarizer. She lifted all her famous catch phrases, not only from the same author, Thomas Wolfe, but from the same book, "You Can't Go Home Again:"( 1.) "Morning in America," p. 384, (2.) "thousand points of light," p. 392 and (3.) "kinder, gentler," p. 570.

I believe I'm the only person to call her on this, whereas many people have criticized Biden. That's probably because Kinnock's speeches are on video, while Wolfe's lines are in a book. What does this say about Americans? That we don't read? That we give credit to people who don't deserve it? All I can say is: I can't believe these assholes are hailed as geniuses, when I can't even get a job!