Catholic Professor Kmiec Using Eucharist As A Political Weapon ?

Prof Kmiec has written again another Shallow piece , IMHO, on how Catholic should support Obama. Pro Ecclesia has more and great comments at Doug Kmiec Again Places Platitudes Above Policy [UPDATED] ,

For those that wandered to my dear ole blog for the first time, I have written on the strange journey of this Catholic legal mind from Romney Supporter to now OBAMA supporter. He now appears to be one of the most public faces of the Catholic for Obama campaign something it appears he works at non stop.

I have respected Prof Kmeic in the past but part of his act is getting tiresome. As Pro Eccelsia points out at the end of this Chicago Tribune piece we see

Douglas W. Kmiec, who was denied communion by a priest for endorsing Barack Obama, is a professor of constitutional law at Pepperdine University and was an assistant U.S. attorney general during the Reagan administration.

Now for those that are not aware of this saga, this occurred at a Private Mass for Catholic Business men. It happened once!!! I noted at the time that if I was in that situation and in Prof Kmiec situation I would have approached the Bishop in a private manner and had the problem corrected. Note we have only heard his side on this one time occurrence. Prof Kmiec though plays the Martyr. I find that distasteful for a man in his position. If his regular Pastor had denied him communion or his Bishop I can see making this a issue.

As Pro Eccelsia points out:
Are you frickin' kidding me? I figured we'd be hearing Kmiec tout the "I was denied Communion" red badge of "courage" sob story from now until election day, but I never thought he'd stoop as low as basically adding it to his resume. A disgusting bit of self-promotion .

But when your arguments are so weak what can you expect. I don't mean to open a past Republican Primary can of worms of again but this tactic seems very much like the ones that some supporters of his past favored Guy(Romney) used against their opponents. Take the actions and words of a few misguided supporters of their opponents and create a persecution complex. (BY the way no doubt this political tactic is widespread among supporters of all Folks in the heat of a political campaign. I just use the Romney example because I was affected by it). NO doubt Romney folks can and say the same about particular Huckabee supporters etc. I just found it a particualr tiresome tactic that was occuring at some high levels of the Romney Campaign but did not appear sanctioned by Romney himself.

It should be noted that many Catholic Supporters of McCain thought and publicly said the actions of this one lone Priest at a Private Mass for Catholic Businessmen was wrong. Including the very slash and burn politics(God Love her) Mrs Lopez at the National Review. She was not alone and in fact much of the Catholic Conservative blogsphere noted that this ONE TIME incident was wrong.

I guess I am more sad than offended that a Prominent Catholic Legal mind is playing political games here and not resting on his arguments. He further knows that the Secular Press will sensationalize this ONE TIME PRIVATE MASS mistake by this priest and slam the Church as a whole as well as muddy the waters on other issues. For example the Denial of Communion to the GOvernor of Kansas for her aggressive advocacy of Abortion.

I expect better from people that wish to represent Catholic thought in the public square. I would have the same attitude to a person using these tactics if perhaps they were denied Communion at a ONE TIME PRIVATE MASS because he supported the Military Surge in Iraq.

Rest on your arguments Prof Kmiec , your past work and your representation of being a leading Catholic in the public square demands it. If you wish to play common political games it your right. But it is disappointing.

I must say there is a striking difference between How Rudy Guilliani handled this issue and how Prof Kmiec handled it. It is my view that Rudy, that I believe was properly sanctioned. respected his faith enough to know that even from a Bishop this was a matter of private dialogue and his Church.

What Prof Kmiec went through at ONE PRIVATE MASS is nothing to compared to that. Rudy did not make the issues of his denial of communion a political issue. Prof Kmeic does not seem to want to follow that example.