Monday, January 12, 2009

Thou Shall Not Question Doug Kmiec

I think that must be a new commandment. I gave a very brief overview of my first thoughts to his latest article here at Doug Kmiec Striles Back!!! A Response!!!

I am going to wait till about Noon tomorrow to see if a blogger with a much wider audience and thus wider distribution uses Kmiec's prior writings of the last few months to show how Prof Kmiec is calling the kettle black here. If they don't I expect I will spend much of next evening composing that piece.

I do agree that some bloggers have been over the top with criticism of Prof Kmic at at times. However that happens in the public square. Most have been very upfront about questioning his conclusions. Somehow this is bad.

Ross Douthat who writes for the Atlantic and I suspect is more influential than me or even Jay Anderson that is critical of Kmiec at times got this treatment when he wrote a very straightforward article about Kmiec and his support of Obama here at Kmiec's Abortion Folly.

I like Douthat a lot and he is constantly engaging people he disagrees with in the most civil discourse over the years. Kmiec responds with a post that has the hilarious title Ross, To Comment Is Not To Hate

Kmiec's response is what we that dare oppose Kmiec's reasoning have had to deal with the last year. He does a ton of verbage basically saying nothing but leaves the impression all that disagree with him or oppose Obama are somehow tainted or engaging in some politics of destruction. In other words about half is or less was about Obama and the other half about that horrible Republican Catholics. Hey I respect his wordsmith skills and I bet he would make a great closing argument in front of a jury. But after seeing this theme in the too many to count Kmiec election pieces we all start to catch on.

Tucker Carlson (recall him the bowtie guy on Crossfire) shoots back and basically tells it like it is and what we have been screaming. He said

Hey, Doug. Toughen up. Seriously. I've read suicide notes that were less passive-aggressive than this. Let's review what actually happened: You argued that Obama is not a pro-choice extremist. Ross disagreed. Rather than respond with a counterpoint, you got hysterical, dismissing Ross as a hater, even fretting about the future of his soul.
Come on. Get some perspective. And for God's sake, stop whining. For a moment there, you reminded me of the McCain campaign, bitching about "sexism" when people started to ask tough questions of Sarah Palin. Republicans didn't used to talk this way. Let's stop the trend now, starting with you.
I understand it must have hurt when Ross accused you of shilling for Obama. On the other hand, he's right. You did shill for Obama. That's not Ross' fault. Don't blame him.
But if you are going to blame him, do it directly, like a man, without all the encounter-group talk and Pope quotes. People often attack the religious right, sometimes with justification. But as you just reminded us, there is nothing in the world more annoying than the religious left
.

Amen to that. THIS AND HIS LATEST ARTICLE is a small part of what frustrates many of us. God help the United States if Obama chooses him as Vatican Envoy. The Papacy, that in the present day is only rivaled by the Japan Royal Family in time and history , and its Diplomatic Corp will chew and spit out Prof Kmiec for breakfast since he is so easily offended .

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