When Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell shut down Elizabeth Warren in the middle of a speech using a little-known rule, everyone was stunned. McConnell defended himself by saying, “Sen. Warren was giving a lengthy speech. She had appeared to violate the rule. She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.”
#ShePersisted became an instant hashtag, rallying cry, and tee-shirt slogan. Chelsea Clinton took that notion and turned it into a best-selling book. However, Christopher Janes Kimberley, a writer from Albany, New York, says it was his idea. Kimberley, whose Facebook page suggests he's no fan of Hillary Clinton, made his book available to the public since 2014. The New York Post has more:
“I did months of painstaking research on my book. Her version looks like a ninth-grade homework assignment,” he vented to The Post. “I am in disbelief.”
The little-known writer claims he sent a pitch for his illustrated kids book, “A Heart is the Part That Makes Boys And Girls Smart,” to the president of Penguin Young Readers US, Jennifer Loja, in May 2013, according to the lawsuit.
Instead of publishing it, she passed the idea off to Clinton, who cashed in on his hard work, he claims in court papers.
“She Persisted,” published May 30, features at least three of the same quotes from inspiring historical women — including Helen Keller, Harriet Tubman and Nellie Bly — that appear in Kimberley’s book, along with similar images, the writer claims.
Clinton’s book centers on “13 American Women Who Changed the World” and is an “unauthorized reproduction of [Kimberly’s] work,” court papers state.
“The appearance of impropriety is striking,” he says in the lawsuit.
The writer filed a cease-and-desist order in April to stop Clinton from publishing the book.
By the way, Clinton's book is #1 one on the New York Times best-selling children's picture book list. Though it's not clear whether Kimberley has a legitimate claim, it seems Mitch McConnell is the one who made the phrase into a rallying cry for discontented feminists.
Image Credit: Wikipedia