Then again, if he were inclined to do the right thing he would never have become a Democrat Senator.

Sen. John Walsh remained steadfast Thursday amid allegations he plagiarized a research project required for a master’s degree, winning fresh backing from fellow Democrats in Montana and the governor who appointed him to the Senate earlier this year.

The revelations that Walsh included both conclusions and verbatim passages from the writings of other scholars in his 2007 U.S. Army War College thesis, known as a strategy research project, “will not change Senator Walsh’s commitment,” his campaign said.

Asked if Walsh was considering abandoning his race for election to the Senate against Republican Rep. Steve Daines, campaign spokeswoman Lauren Passalacqua said: “Absolutely not.”

It is now clear that at least 3/4 of the strategic research project was plagiarized. Such a degree of borrowing of other's words and ideas is not an oversight or an error -- it is intellectual theft. Walsh's refusal to bow out shows just how unfit he is for any position of public trust.