If You Disagree with Catholic Prof Doug Kmiec on Obama You Are A Republican Hack

I sometimes wonder if I spend too little or too much time on Catholic Law Professor and Obama Supporter Doug Kmiec. If you could for instance put 95,0000 American Catholics in LSU Tiger's Stadium and ask him who Kmiec is how many would know? Maybe a couple of hundred and that is really being optimistic.

Still like in many things in life a person can have a lot of influence on your life and pretty much be anonymous.

Douglas Kmeic is now being trotted out by the Obama campaign as "The Pro-lifer Republican" that has seen the light and urges us all to vote for Obama. He is I am afraid in his arguments misleading people and that must be combated.

I talked about a interview that Kmiec gave to the great Vatican Reporter John Allen yesterday at Douglas Kmiec Says Obama Will Have Great Relations With the Vatican!! (Updated) . In a portion of that interview I didn't quote Prof Kmiec said :

“I have no grievance with the hierarchy,” Kmiec said, “but with some of my fellow Republicans.” Kmiec charged that “some partisan Republicans think the Catholic vote is permanently indentured to the Republican Party” because of the abortion issue, which he called a “misstatement of the faith.”

Well it is very nice that Prof Kmiec does not have a grievance with the hierarchy. Especially since in all my years of paying attention to national elections (about 1988) I have never seen the Bishops so involved in an election in my life.

Prof Kmiec though seems to have a problem or "grievance" with those that repeat what the hierarchy is saying and we when we do we become "partisan Republicans" or "partisan hacks". This dishonesty of his he needs to be called on.

A quite shocking example of this is a debate he had with Deacon Keith Fournier who is one of the main guys at Catholic Online. Deacon Fournier really expose the bladder dash that Kmiec is heaping out in a debate that was Public Radio. See Pro -Ecclesia's post Deacon Fournier Puts Smack Down on Prof. Kmiec for a huge excerpt and link to the Deacon's article.

Now Deacon Fournier has given Prof Kmiec a voice and place to state his views about Obama and how he is the proper choice for Catholics to vote for. Catholic Online is a pretty well traveled web site. The good Deacon has done this out of Christian Charity and this has been going on for some time now.

The Deacon ,a after pretty much taking apart Kmiec's points , in his piece said this:

Doug tried to return to his script, engaging in a tired effort to address those he calls “Religious Faith Partisans” and their "singular focus" on reversing Roe v Wade. It did not work. Doug knows I am not what he now calls a “Religious Faith Partisan”. I support the full gamut of life issues and embrace the whole life/pro-life position set forth in Catholic Social teaching. The next place we can clear away the smoke is by contesting Doug's argument that the Democratic Party, by emphasizing economic support for women who “choose” not to abort and “sex education” for young people (whatever that term means),is somehow acting more “morally” than the Republican Party.

I simply pointed out that both major Party Platforms now make almost the same promises and it is a non-issue. All he could manage was to try to reach into the past and point out the failures of Republicans. I do not disagree. I insisted that the concern I had for the recognition of the fundamental right to life was not a partisan issue.

I made an effort to return the discussion to his support of a candidate who openly fails to recognize the right to life of an entire category of persons, our first neighbors in the womb, and supports the “right” to reach into that home and kill them. Finally,he spoke of Catholic Social Teaching.I know it and embrace it.I insisted that I am a “reluctant Republican”, a former Democrat who left the Party when they failed to hear the cry of the poorest of the poor, children in the womb,and that I was working to ensure that both Parties embrace it.I ended by returning to his misguided effort to persuade Catholics that,when there is a real difference in the candidates concerning the Fundamental Human Right to Life,that one could "morally" choose to support a candidate who favored abortion. Before I knew it, the program was over. I was just getting started.

This is getting tiring from Prof Kmiec and quite frankly it is slander. I truly wonder if Prof Kmiec knows anything about the people in the pro-life movement. If you disagree with him you are a Republican partisan hack. This is one reason my posts on Kmiec have become much more critical of him of late. Kmiec often starts his tomes with how he has been "persecuted" and how mean people are saying bad things about him on the net. He often forgets or does not mention that in a highly unfortunate one time incident when he was denied communion at a private mass for his support of Obama many of these same "Republican hacks" came to his defense.

Amy Welborn pretty much destroyed some of the arguments that Pro Kmiec is making against the pro-life movement at Straw Everywhere. She answers very well the current Kmiec talking point he is making that is basically :

You know, the anti-abortion movement just has to get over its fixation with overturning Roe. Instead of obsessing about criminalization, the anti-abortion movement should take the energy it puts into politics and work to find ways to decrease the number of abortion and improve the lives of women, children and families.

Be sure to read the comment section at Amy' post.