Doug Kmiec's New Letter - Frankly my dear, we don't give a damn.

It's funny, I was just asking around Christendom as to whether anyone had heard from or seen Doug Kmiec - and TA DA!!



Another shameless shill for and to Obama. We want him to succeed. We admire the many things he has done. But please sir, I ask no longer as an ambassador but as a friend, and friendship will not permit me to disregard duty to faith and country,why put the cold calculus of politics above faith and freedom?

..many individuals who stood as people of independent mind against those who sought to defeat your efforts to promote the common good.

There he was, an independent mind, in the midst of all the boogeymen who seek to defeat the common good.

What audacity he has to stand in the public square and say he admires Obama's agenda, wants him to be successful and paint the prolife grassroots as people who seek the defeat of good for their fellow countrymen and women.

This letter is all about him:


I asked you some months ago to explain why you remained silent when our international inter-faith efforts were wrongly assailed. You did not respond.... The Barack Obama I knew would never have asked me to make that choice.



Doug Kmiec put the cold calculus of politics above faith and freedom. The
'common good' agenda he shilled for has all been executed.

We don't know what happened in Malta. Frankly, my dear, we don't give a damn.

Doug Kmiec Pens Resignation Letter to Obama and Clinton

Creative Minority Report has the scoop.

Seeing the writing on the wall, he submitted his resignation letter before they canned him with the caveat that they milk his position on the dime of taxpayers until August of 2011. And he positioned it as if he was being martyred by an 'unfortunate' report by the Office of the Inspector General:


"I ask that you accept my resignation effective on the feast of the Assumption, 2011."

The day of his resignation is no coincidence. since it falls on the feast of Our Lady. Kmiec is a devout Roman Catholic. He was chosen to be ambassador for Malta, precisely because of his strong faith. Malta is a Roman Catholic country where divorce and abortion are not legal.

Kmiec's resignation follows the release of a State Department report which criticized him for a number of alleged infractions, including spending, "an inordinate amount of time reviewing his writings, speeches, and other initiatives."

The guy is shameless.

When I read it, I wondered who in the field of candidates for 2012 would be desperate enough to need Kmiec's chicanery to take on the albatross.

Will flip-flop Romney take him on again or do you think the bridge is burned?

When I read a comment from somebody at CMR suggesting Trump, I thought - bingo!

Any other guesses?

Doug Kmiec Waterboarding Maltese Officials With His Drivel

Maltese Officials have written a rather embarrassing critique of Doug Kmiec's tenure as Ambassador of Malta.

In short, he is ignoring his duties and wasting all his time writing, and then forcing embassy officials to waste their time reading his drivel.

Based on a belief that he was given a special mandate to promote President Obama’s interfaith initiatives, he has devoted considerable time to writing articles for publication in the United States as well as in Malta, and to presenting his views on subjects outside the bilateral portfolio. He has been inconsistent in observance of clearance procedures required for publication. He also looks well beyond the bilateral relationship when considering possible events for the mission to host in Malta. His approach has required Department principals, as well as some embassy staff, to spend an inordinate amount of time reviewing his writings, speeches, and other initiatives. His official schedule has been uncharacteristically light for an ambassador at a post of this size, and on average he spends several hours of each work day in the residence, much of which appears to be devoted to his nonofficial writings.

At the same time, he has not focused sufficiently on key management issues within the embassy. . .Within weeks of the team’s departure, however, he resumed drafting public essays that addressed subjects outside his purview as Ambassador to Malta and detracted from his core responsibilities. These activities also detracted from the core responsibilities of embassy staff members who devoted time and effort to reviewing and editing the ambassador’s drafts and seeking approvals occasionally after the writings had been submitted for publication from Department officials.

The Office of the Inspector General report is HERE.

It paints a picture of a man who has completely abandoned is duties and his staff.

This recommendation was among several from the OIG:

RECOMMENDATION 1: The Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs
should require the Ambassador to report on his efforts to refocus attention on
mission priorities and eliminate his use of embassy and Department resources
on nonofficial writings. (Action: EUR)

Ugh. I hope this doesn't mean he'll soon be packing up his memoirs and bringing them back to the US.

Summary on Obama's Abortion Efforts

How's Doug Kmiec's honesty on Obama stacking up now?

Doug Kmiec and his Cronies - for the record

Kmiec's crowd loves to sell the notion that sanctifying grace is free. It isn't. You've got to suffer painful sacrifices to obtain it. It comes at a great price.

When the going got rough with the economy, the devil held out the bread and more than half of Catholic voters took it. Kmiec was a tool in the transaction.

They just don't get the story of faithful servant under excruciating circumstances.

Imagine living this life with the entire meaning of Job and Christ being lost to you?

What else is there?

The Passion of the Kmiec -(Venite Adoramus was a song about him)

Jay Anderson has an update on what he accurately calls the passion of the Kmiec. He claims to be in the running to be Obama's Vatican Ambassador.

"At the appropriate time, when diplomatic relations through the State Department need to be addressed, I think my name would be part of the discussion."

Kmiec, of course, thought Fr. Neuhaus's death was all about him, so while there is a possibility he is misreading the writing on the wall, I think Obama's good old boy network will reward him.

Jay linked some good comments which memorialize Kmiec's "popularity" among Catholics of good will.

Of course he would think that. Everything is always about him. The question is is Pres Obama stupid enough to appoint him?

Prior to Obama's reversal on the Mexico City Policy I had a conversation with some work colleagues yesterday who are Obama fans. "Leading off his Presidency with an abortion issue would be stupid and Obama is not stupid.", my friend remarked.

Kmiec's writings betray the narcissistic trait of turning everything that happens into something about him. So, yeah, I think Kmiec misquoted the teachings of the Church not so much as a favor to Obama (and was certainly the antithesis of a service to Christ's Church), but to get something out of it for himself because that is what narcissists do. That's their shtick.

Doug Kmiec's New Shtick: He's a Martyr.

Yet not everyone in America is cheered by this triumph. Indeed, within certain embittered precincts, the penalty for having supported Obama can be stiff. As the author of a book whose title asked Can a Catholic Support Him?-and whose contents answered with an enthusiastic “Yes, we can!”-I have felt the animosity of those with an insatiable desire for political payback.

He can hardly contain the love for himself. When some Catholics struggle financially, they grope for an excuse to elect an administration who will exploit poor women and extinguish the lives of children in exchange for a promise for prosperity. Kmiec contorted the teachings of the Church to exploit women and children and now, he is a martyr.

That's his new meme.

He and his book alone are responsible for Obama's election, and now all the "right-wing" Catholics are calling him naughty names. Children will be misled by the "strength of appointment" and the "steadiness of the demeanor" of Obama's Secretary of Education whose moral compass is just waiting in the wings to demoralize them, they are reaching out to poor women to bait them into abortions - and Kmiec is being subjected to vilification and naughty names. All the price of martyrdom.

He is a gentleman, he is, and some people just oppose harmony. What's with folks who won't be distracted to engage in civilized discourse with him while the administration lobbies for FOCA.

Oh, what a cruel world.

I acknowledge the wisdom of Sr. Pius’s eighth-grade counsel: “Douglas, just offer it up!” That was good advice.

Maximilian Kolbe, he is, and intelligent, kindly and well-mannered, he will suffer through his tormenters. FOCA is not a threat. While lobbying to pass FOCA, Obama kneels in front of the cross because cares about the poor and average family and the environment.

The drivel is painful.

If it's one thing I loathe it is the use of a Crucifix as a prop to lead the flock into temptation. While the massacres are going on behind his curtain, he stands on a podium and berates courageous people who are wiling to protect the innocent and tell the flock not to follow him on the road to perdition.

Kmiec's self-righteous screed is really just another chapter of delusion in the sad contortion of an animus.

I am “an embarrassing shill,” “hysterical,” and “pathetic”; also “a fool,” “an Obama shill of such mystifying obtuseness that one suspects a head injury,” “a slimeball,” “an unfaithful, cowardly betrayer”; just “another so-called Christian who flashes a Bible and looks righteous to the pagans,” and so on. “I hear,” wrote one Catholic blogger, cutely summoning the gospel, “that Sen. Obama will be FedExing thirty pieces of silver to Doug Kmiec.”

Once, he says, he was on his way to mislead Catholic students at Seton Hill in South Carolina and he found out Bishop barred his presence to prevent the contortions of those minds. On the plane, he called the Chancery and told the Bishop what a sincere gentleman he was, and the Bishop removed the ban.

What good things happen when two gentleman can work things out in this cruel world.

Ladies and gentlemen can hold Planned Parenthood conferences at Catholic schools, vulgar women have Vagina Monologues and Doug Kmiec can twist up the teachings of the Church - and on and on it goes.

Of course, by then the letter was already beginning to circulate virally, spread by the venomous right-wing blogs. To be remade by a hateful blogosphere has its price, I’ve learned. I worry that such invitations to speak at Catholic colleges, and the fruitful exchanges these invitations make possible, will be fewer.

Oh, the hateful people are gumming things up are just insufferable.

One member of the U.S. hierarchy whom I greatly admire has renounced our past association, writing, “We are not friends, professor,” and answering my invocation of Christian brotherhood with a curt retort: “I do see you as a brother in Christ-a brother who is serving an evil end.”

May God and His Angels protect our good and brave shepherds willing to stand up and be counted. We object. We object to the twisting of the Church's teachings to mislead and confuse and lead into temptation.

The vituperation propagated in the Catholic blogging world is remarkable for its reach and speed. When a writer for America recently speculated that the Obama administration might name me as ambassador to the Holy See, I was flattered. And while I would never want my presidential endorsement months earlier to be understood as anything other than what it always was-freely given without expectation of quid pro quo-the writer’s suggestion did prompt me to seek God’s will through prayer. Might this be an invitation to be of greater service to the church? Neither God nor the president-elect had an opportunity to answer before the blogs were recycling their various calumnies, and adding now an anonymous voice allegedly saying “it would never happen.”

The calumnious, venomous, hateful, false, lying, uncharitable, right-wing and ugly people can put the kibosh on his aspirations.

But, he can rise above calling people names because this editorial is about his ability to turn the other cheek.

Wormwood, eat your heart out.

***UPDATE: Jay Anderson at Pro Ecclesia posted Kmiec's editorial on Neuhaus which twists Father's death into a "Tasteless. Unbecoming. Insensitive. Not to mention utterly false and nonsensical" infomercial for Kmiec and Obama.

Jay links to Catholic online where he and others have posted their distaste. Jay's two contributions:

Leave it to Prof. Kmiec to eulogize Fr. Neuhaus in a way that is really all about Prof. Kmiec and just another lame defense of his decision to vote for Obama. Fr. Neuhaus, may he rest in peace, deserves better.

In fact, the most impressive thing about Prof. Kmiec's "eulogy" of Fr. Neuhaus is that he didn't use it as yet another opportunity to share with us about how he was denied Communion.

Former student of Kmiec, Gunner Gunderson's:

Does it really honor Fr. Neuhaus to equate his approach to abortion with Obama's FOCA approach? Was it really non-partisan to allow Professor Kmiec to mislead the readers of www.catholic.org that Obama wants to help women not choose abortion when his minions are preparing to use federal dollars to fund them? Did it really help in understanding Fr. Neuhaus's legacy by describing his contributions to Catholic theology and moral thought in this country to "political discourse" and benefiting only the "conservative side of the ledger?"

Moreover, the article was an invitation to despair that we will never overturn the unjust laws against abortion! Despair is from the Devil. If Professor Kmiec really believes that Fr. Neuhaus is in heaven with God then he should know that it is more likely than ever that a pro-life victory is at hand for now we have more help from the Church Triumphant in Fr. Neuhaus's prayers in heaven.

Jay wrap up of the Kmiec's hijack:

I'm a big fan of Deacon Fournier, but I am disappointed that he has chosen at this time to give a forum to this dreadful "eulogy" of such a great man as Fr. Neuhaus. It is past the time that respectable orthodox Catholic publications and organizations should be giving a platform for Prof. Kmiec to spew his dissenting nonsense.

But to allow it under the guise of eulogizing Fr. Neuhaus is beyond the pale.

I second that motion.

Jay also posts Joseph Bottom's response:

UPDATE (12 January)
Joseph Bottum posts his response to Kmiec at First Things:

... Finally, there is Douglas Kmiec’s odd obituary. I’m tempted to say a reasonable response can be found here, but some readers may not appreciate the profanity. Anyway, Kmiec’s attempt to pose himself as a friend and dialogue partner of Fr. Neuhaus may be the saddest and most pathetic of all the responses to this recent death. “It absolutely delighted Father John that the Holy Father gave American Catholics credit for resisting the secular trends of Western Europe,” Kmiec writes—to which the only response is: Who the hell ever called Richard by the name “Father John”? Only people who didn’t actually know him and want, after his death, to pretend that they did...

Oh my. The post to which Bottum links is a bit jarring, especially juxtaposed below a photo of the Blessed Sacrament; but I'd be lying if I said the same thought hadn't crossed my mind once or twice over the past year.

I think we all have?

I think it's noteworthy to post the link to which Joseph Bottom refers:

I usually find the screeds posted on other Catholic blogs to be exaggerations or misreadings, or overly sensitive readings. However, I too found Doug Kmiec's eulogy for Fr. Neuhaus to be both about himself, and a pro-Obama puff piece, with Fr. Neuhaus as ancillary to the subject. That, I believe, is not how a good eulogy is done.

And so, for the first and last time here, I'm going to put the matter as colorfully and bluntly as possible.

Go **** yourself, Doug Kmiec.

That is all.

I'll take this opportunity to offer an apology to the Holy Trinity...and Fr. Neuhaus. Ora pro nobis.

H/T American Catholic.

P.S: Be sure to check out Joseph Bottom's right-on-target description of Rod Dreher.

Giuliani: Palin More Qualified Than Obama

He also said Obama “is the least experienced candidate for president in the last 100 years.

“I mean, he's never run a city, he's never run a state, he's never run a business, he's never administered a payroll, he's never led people in crisis,” Giuliani said.

“I think here he wanted to send the message, get somebody fresh, somebody really who represents the other America outside of Washington where people don't care whether you have an 'R' or a 'D' after your name, they just want you to get something done to help them deal with the problems they have,” Lieberman said. “And Sarah Palin comes from that other America.”

In the mad dash between throwing away the talking points the Dems had for vp candidate Romney and drumming up new ones, the following jewels from the emergency broadcasts at NPR:

Obama hearts polar bears (but not infant survivors of botched abortions).

McCain is jaded from too many years experience in Washington.

Obama lacks experience but represents change.

Palin lacks experience.

What happens if something happens to McCain.

Joe Biden is a good pick because he has a lot of experience in Washington and balances out Obama's lack of experience. (Isn't the more important question, what happens if something happens to Biden?)

The Repugs don't care about victims of hurricanes.

The Democrats spent gazilliion dollars on a glitzy convention.

The Repugs are toning down their convention to put efforts into victims of the impending hurricane Gustav, must be a sign.

A mystifying puzzle I hope some crackerjack at the Kennedy School of Government can solve at some point?

Doug Kmiec, trying to hold off the Friday morning post convention stampede to McCain has a new article up on the bastion of orthodoxy, Slate.

He explains on his way home from the losing battle of selling Romney to Catholics he came up with the next best thing to Romney for Catholic sensibility, Obama. Obama is the new Reagan.

"Now, don't think me daft,...", he says, which surely indicates he's aware selling a candidate who supports infantcide to practicing Catholics is as offensive as selling the common good policies of Karl Marx, Adolph Hilter and Joe Stalin.

"Much of the Catholic primary vote has been in the Democratic column, going at first to Hillary Clinton over Obama, as in New Hampshire, where she won 44 percent to 27 percent."

No, actually, if you take the number of Catholics in every diocese in these states, you'll actually find that most Catholics didn't find a compelling reason to go to the polls to vote between Obama and Clinton.

" Catholics or reveals that rare gift of empathy that defined Reagan and that one glimpses in Obama. "

I'm not sensing empathy, I'm getting a strong sense of ambition from a couple well-healed, well groomed with clips of Jack and Jackie O for the last four years, and lurking under that veneer is a couple filled with rage.

While McCain ran a commercial congratulating Obama for a job well done on the night of his acceptance speech, the Obama campaign made a snide/duplicitous remark in response to the announcement of Palin. This the politics of hope and unity?

Kmiec's article draws the conclusion that teachings of the Catholic Church are on a collision course with the culture and therefore we are released from It's prohibitions on voting and, in fact, there really are no prohibitions:

"While no papal instruction will ever condone the "right to choose," the church does ask for a consistent and realistic defense of life that actually takes steps to reduce the incidence of the practice, not just condemns it. Catholics will note that McCain and Huckabee's pro-life postures collapse when it comes to the death penalty."

Kmiec avoids the Papal instruction to refrain from voting for promoter of killing at will and he knows full well that the death penalty for convicted war criminals or mass murderers and sociopaths is not in conflict with the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Deliberate deception.

Catholics should rise to the occasion and contact Kmiec's Bishop.