There have been a number of right wingers who have been accused of plagiarism and lifting other's work in recent years. Most notably, Cindy McCain, Ann Coulter and Ben Domenech and more recently, Sarah Palin was caught lifting passages from Newt Gingrich. Now, an author has accused wingnut Elisabeth Hasselbeck of lifting her content "word for word" in her new book:

BOSTON – The author of a health book has sued Elisabeth Hasselbeck, accusing the co-host of ABC's "The View" of plagiarism.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court in Massachusetts, alleges that Hasselbeck lifted "word for word" content from a book written by Susan Hassett, a self-published author on Cape Cod.

Hassett said in the lawsuit that she sent Hasselbeck a personal note and copy of her "Living With Celiac Disease" book as a courtesy after the television celebrity disclosed she had the illness last year.

Wasn't that nice of Elisabeth? Hassett was kind enough to send her a copy of her book, only to find out that she lifted parts of it to write her own. Not only does she lift passages, Hassett claims that Hasselbeck's book contains bogus and possibly dangerous information:

Hassett said Hasselbeck's book "slavishly reproduces" lists and passages from her own work and includes inaccuracies about celiac disease that can be "misleading and dangerous" for people with the illness. Read on...

October 26, 2008 MSNBC
Elisabeth Hasselbeck of “The View,” the ABC talk show, introduced Sarah Palin Sunday, “If I may say so, the view from up here is looking pretty good Tampa, Florida,” said Hasselbeck, considered the conservative voice on the women-centered talk show, referring to the cheering crowd.

She said she wanted to clarify a few things about Palin, including the “accessories” Palin wears, including a flag pin she wears. “And did I mention that this woman has a real knack for cleaning? She cleaned up house in Alaska. All that corruption—it went out with the trash,” Hasselbeck said. And the same mop will be used by Palin to clean up Washington and Wall Street, she said.

UPDATE: John Amato

I think they are going completely off message here. They should have let the "clothing issue" die down, but now they put it back out in the spotlight where it only hurts McCain because now the media will focus all day covering it instead of trying to get McCain's message out in the remaining few days that are left in the campaign.