Doug Kmiec, Barack Obama’s ambassador to Malta, has resigned or was forced out depending on what you read. But the reason seems to be that he was speaking and writing about his faith too much.
Kmiec, a Catholic who had been head of Pepperdine Law School and served in the Reagan administration, shocked many when he publicly endorsed President Obama before the 2008 election. He even wrote a book encouraging Catholics to vote for Obama because Obama was sooooo pro-life. Kmiec said he supported Obama’s “faith based approach” and that Obama would “protect life” by increasing government spending on prenatal care and adoption. For his public endorsement he was denied Communion once in California but given the ambassadorship to Malta. Doesn’t seem like an even trade to me but I guess it did to him.
Kmiec’s endorsement was celebrated in the media and, I believe, was used as cover for many Catholics who supported Obama.
The AP reports:
The U.S. ambassador to Malta, an important Roman Catholic supporter of President Barack Obama, said Sunday he would resign after a State Department report criticized him for spending too much time writing and speaking about his religious beliefs.
In letters to Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Douglas Kmiec said he would step down Aug. 15. He told The Associated Press that no one pressured him to leave.
Kmiec was a well-known conservative law professor and commentator before being taking the job in 2009. But a report this month by the State Department’s inspector general rebuked Kmiec for concentrating too much on issues such as abortion and his faith, while neglecting his ambassadorial duties
“I doubt very much whether one could ever spend too much time on this subject,” Kmiec wrote Obama in his resignation letter.
Honestly, when I started writing this piece I intended to rip the dude up a bit but in the end I think I feel bad for the guy. I think his support of Obama did untold damage to this country but I find myself just hoping maybe the guy realizes he’s been used but I don’t know. Nobody does but Kmiec. I honestly can’t understand how anyone committed to a culture of life could have voted for Obama, never mind work for him. I just don’t get it.
In the end, I think this shows how intolerant the Obama administration is of people of faith. I guess they figure Kmiec served his purpose so now they can kick him to the curb.
April 18, 2011 at 2:41 am
You'll be eating that empathy!
Like a bad penny, he'll be coming back to the United States just in time for elections.
April 18, 2011 at 3:03 am
What the AP didn't point out in their coverage was some verbiage from his resignation letter:
"I ask that you accept my resignation effective on the feast of the Assumption, 2011."
Source: http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/us-ambassador-douglas-kmiec-decides-to-resign-after-state-department-rebuke
Also, the Miami Herald has this from the State Department's Office of the Inspector General:
"he had had "friction with principal officials in Washington, especially over his reluctance to accept their guidance and instructions.""
Consequently, I have hope that he will have realized exactly how much a tool he's been. I'm cynical enough to not hold my breath, though.
April 18, 2011 at 3:09 am
Malta being what it is, I would have thought that writing about religious issues would have qualified as ambassadorial duties. One gets the sense that it wasn't neglect of official duties that got him in Dutch (so to speak) with State, as what he was publishing.
So much for that "faith based" approach.
April 18, 2011 at 3:44 am
*sigh* More prayers for Kmiec…I felt badly for him already when he was made to look so ridiculous when he went up against Prof. George back in the pre-election days (although that debate may have happened immediately after the elections…It's blurring together on me:)
He's too pathetic not to pity…
April 18, 2011 at 4:00 am
Yes, you'll eat that empathy. No one pressured him to leave. He probably just had a snit about being summarily ignored by his pro-life hero Obama. Kmiec seems one of those personalities that thrives on being contrary. His duties as Ambassador probably wearied him, and as a Catholic he realized that he was excluded from the ranks of the martini-glitterati and the liberal smart set. So, he threw a tantrum.
His epic blindness will forever disqualify him from trust, but count on him to hold forth anyway in 2012. Trump with probably be the next pro-life saint he cannonizes.
April 18, 2011 at 6:46 am
bbmoe's comments resonate with me.
1. Malta: small enough and duty-light enough to afford an ambassador a little spare time to write.
2. Malta is as Catholic a country as there ever has been. It seems reasonable that a Catholic ambassador to a Catholic nation would want to connect with its Catholic culture. Unfortunately, Obama's cohort doesn't recognize the worth of any cultural exchange. Obama's clan has no respect for Catholicism. Ergo, they can't possibly value a Catholic ambassador's attempts to write about the faith he shares with his host country.
3. Was he duped, or was he merely naive enough to believe he could function as a Catholic ambassador under his bigoted masters in the State Department?
4. Pres. Obama is the Nixon of new millennium. Obama is for Obama first and the American people second. He says whatever people want to hear and then, once he's gotten what he needs (um, support leading to power…), he enacts his real intentions. Stay tuned for the next episode of Machiavelli 2.0
5. Obama used Kmiec and Kmiec allowed himself to be used. Let's move on. Nothing left but the corpse of a former ambassador's character.
April 18, 2011 at 7:08 am
Guess he found out that Wales wasn't worth the price that he paid
April 18, 2011 at 1:09 pm
Blackrep, You know, I was trying to look at the field of candidates for 2012 and wonder who would need the chicanery enough to take on the albatross. I thought perhaps flip flop Romney again but then when his campaign tanks I couldn't think of anyone else — but you nailed it with Trump.
April 18, 2011 at 2:46 pm
Could we dare to pray that Kmiec had a "Come to Jesus" moment on Mulholland Dr.?
April 18, 2011 at 3:51 pm
It is hard to tell what is happening here and reading the State Department report is no help, it's deliberately vague when it comes down to what's really bugging them about Kmiec right now. But this would not just be about Obama but also about Hilary. Apparently Kmiec has been telling the Maltese press that "Obama is not pro-life" which is obviously a fact and the truth. And a bit more honest than his initial representations at campaign time that Obama was open to dialoguing with prolifers and blah blah blah. Perhaps Obama was hoping that Kmiec would continue this as his official position regardless of what Obama did. Just knowing Hilary as a tactician and her doctrinairre stance with abortion she probably hoped the Kmiec would embrace what they are really all about which is more and bigger abortion as a good thing and tout that to the Maltese as a plus as far as Americans and Obama are concerned. Also, they don't like Catholics to begin with and are hostile, Kmiec didn't seem to get the memo on that, that he should be embarrassed about his faith even towards the Maltese who would understandably see nothing wrong with a Catholic just being a Catholic. Now that the cat's out of the bag this will be spun in the msm as about security etc but we don't have to buy it.
April 18, 2011 at 4:03 pm
Serves him right.
No compassion from this quarter.
If he has seen the error of his ways, he should feel obliged to say so as openly as he has endorsed Hussein Barack "punished with a child" Obama.
Mundabor
April 18, 2011 at 4:46 pm
I think he REALLY support life and finally, eventually, found it to be incompatible with his working for Obama.
Those Maltese were no doubt, a positive influence.
April 18, 2011 at 5:19 pm
Don't know why but this post made me think of this . I know, I know, Malta isn't Capri. *random
April 18, 2011 at 5:19 pm
Don't know why, but this post made me think of this http://www.amazon.com/Father-Elijah-Apocalypse-Michael-OBrien/dp/0898706904
I know, I know, Malta isn't Capri.
*random
April 18, 2011 at 10:15 pm
Oh NO! The cowardly worm is returning. Glad his support of Obama bit him in the rear!!
April 24, 2011 at 7:26 pm
This guy reminds me of Rick Santorum who is also thinking of running for president? Maybe he can have Arlen-specter-of-death as his V.P.?