The following comes from a story dated Feb. 3 in the Weekly Standard.
Doug Kmiec has had an amazing political journey. Today a chaired professor at Pepperdine Law School, Kmiec has traveled nearly the full gamut of public life: He worked in the Office of Legal Counsel under both Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and pursued an active career teaching law, at Notre Dame and Catholic University. He was thought, for a time, to be one of the leading lights in conservative Catholic legal circles.
Of course, conservative Catholic legal circles being what they are, you probably never heard of Kmiec, and if you did, it’s because, in 2008, Kmiec very ostentatiously endorsed Barack Obama for president. At the time, this was taken as yet one more example of Obama’s bipartisan appeal. In retrospect, it was probably a sign of something else.
Last week, Kmiec took to his Facebook page (where all the old folks go on the Internet these days) and announced that he’s running for Congress. Kmiec has targeted California’s 26th district, where freshman Democrat Julia Brownley won a reasonably narrow victory in 2012. The district had been represented by David Dreier for the preceeding decade, so it’s not crazy for Kmiec to think a Republican might have a shot to unseat her. But Kmiec isn’t running as a Republican. He’s running as an independent. Still, not entirely crazy. This is California, after all. Stranger things have happened.
No, the crazy comes when Kmiec explained to the Pepperdine student newspaper exactly why he’s running. He was inspired to run, he said, by Pope Francis. But don’t worry, his candidacy won’t make him some kind of congressional holy roller. Because, as he further explained, he merely sees the House of Representatives as a stepping stone to, well, let’s let Kmiec explain:
Kmiec said that if he wins the election, he would hope to be considered as an option to become the vice-president in Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. “I see it as an outside possibility…. The idea of running for Congress is to put myself in a position where I’m able to both lead in the interim while she’s running for president and be ready for greater responsibility should that be God’s blessing and his wisdom,” he said. Kmiec’s blog further explains how the U.S., in his opinion, is “Ready for Hillary.”
But is it ready for Kmiec, a Reagan Republican turned Obama booster who’s running for Congress as an independent so he can be Hillary Clinton’s running mate and then—fiat voluntas tua!—be ready for even greater responsibility should, you know, anything happen to Madam President?
The full scale of Kmiec’s ambitions suddenly comes clear. And they also cast into new light some of his other political decisions.
For instance, in 2007 and early 2008, Kmiec was actually on board the Mitt Romney campaign, serving as a member of Romney’s advisory committee. But that didn’t work out—Romney dropped out of the race on February 14, 2008, turning his delegates over to the more moderate John McCain. Five weeks later, on March 23, Kmiec endorsed … Obama. A year later, in April 2009, Kmiec re-endorsed Obama. Or, as he put it, “Today I reaffirm my endorsement of Barack Obama as president of the United States.” Which was a little strange, since there was no election and Obama had been in the White House for 12 weeks already. But a few weeks later, Kmiec’s re-endorsement paid off, and Obama appointed him ambassador to Malta. (Kmiec was a prodigious blogger then at Slate, and now at the Huffington Post, so it’s easy to keep track of these things.)
Alas, the relationship was fated to end poorly. In 2011, an inspector general’s report suggested that Kmiec was shirking the grueling ambassadorial duties in Valletta and instead spending his time writing and giving speeches. He resigned. And in 2012 he lamented that he could not re-re-endorse Obama because of the HHS contraceptive/abortifacient mandate, which had left him “without a candidate.” Obama somehow muddled through without him.
To read the original story, click here.
Just what we need – more CINOs. (Catholics in name only for those of you not in the know.)
ugh! Pray for all the CINOs……their prospects are not bright.
Years ago when Cardinal Mahoney had Kmiec give the “Newman Eberhardt” lecture at St. John’s in Camarillo I removed myself from their mailing list. (The late Fr. Eberhardt being the most orthodox teacher I have ever had in my life.) I hope “history” doesn’t allow Kmiec to forget his shameful actions in the elections. Liberal doses of opprobrium should be his in perpetuity. What does it profit a man to lose his soul? …… Ah but for Malta!
And deliver us from chameleons like Doug Kmiec.
Kmiec is dishonest in the above article. He did end up supportingt Obama for President in 2012 saying that “overall Obama is doing a great job”.
https://www.catholicvote.org/ex-ambassador-kmiec-in-revealing-interview-says-hell-endorse-obama-in-12/comment-page-2/
and
https://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=113626
In 2008, Kmiec very ostentatiously endorsed Barack Obama for president, and again in 2012.
He is a Democrat no matter what he may say differently.
Taxpayer funding of Abortion, contraception, and support for sodomy marriage are not worthy of his consideration. Obama has always been publically open about his support of abortion even prior to his first term of office.
Kmiec is a Catholic heretic and schismatic just like Joe Biden, John Kerry and some others.
_______________
He was denied Holy Communion but the denial was rebuked by the infamous Cardinal Roger Mahoney who aided and abetted child sexual abusers.
Another “Catholic” working to butcher more babies and spread the sodomite agenda. Just what the Church needs.
Professor Kmiec is a lost soul, and one in apparent danger of falling out of the Church, entirely. No Catholic, that is a Catholic with a belief in the Deposit of Faith and that is practicing, can support Obama, and certainly not Hillary Clinton. Putting aside Kmiec’s delusion hope about being Hillary’s VP nominee (Time for retirement, Professor!!), his belief in the rightness of her candidacy is so bizarre as to be unbelievable. However, this is a man that joined with many other men (including more than a few clergy) in voting for Obama the first time. (And, boo-hoo for Kmiec’s anguish about not being able to vote for the President a second time, after he realized, one guesses, that it was only snow, after all, covering the manure.) Catholics — true Catholics — must take a stand against Hillary. She is a demon with brains (not an affirmative action success story like “give-a-good-speech” only, Obama), and a dark purpose. Hillary’s one true goal in a miserable tenure as Secretary of State was to make the world safe — and profitable — for Planned Parenthood and for abortion. She is imprinted with the most damnable sort of feminism, to boot — one that does battle with anything Christian, and certainly Catholic. Not only would America be in deadly peril if Hillary were President, and its way of life over, but her venom would poison a new generation of young women, who already suffer with a rejection of their roles as wives and mothers, in favor of one as sexually licentious career girls. Even supposedly “Catholic” young woman are really not much different than their overtly pagan friends on issues like devotion to their faith, homosexual sexual relationships, multiple marriages, sin and redemption, and the like. Professor Kmiec needs to carefully think more about running for Congress (who needs another pro-choice “independent” anyway), and the value of his immortal soul.
Electing Hilary Clinton for President will place us all in Benghazi. We will be hung out in dangerous territory with assurances of protection, we will send diligent reports while doing our duty only to be willfully ignored for Political purposes, and then left to hang as the enemy moves in to exterminate us so as not to dirty the hands of our own dear leaders. Much like delusional Catholics who foolishly align themselves with the Democratic Party whom they brainwash themselves to believe are on the same side.
The aftermath of our disappearance will be, “What does it matter now?” And what a valid point that will be as those Catholics left will be the sell outs that didn’t want Catholic truth anyway. They’ll readily digest the ‘reality’ that it was the Ambassador’s fault, I mean, the fault of Catholics (those who trusted in the system, did their duty, followed the law and worked within the system.) But hey, the throwbacks will then be gone and everyone can move forward to true unity of popular opinion.
I can well imagine Nancy Pelosi’s grin being far ‘wierder’ than that of the supposedly possessed family in Indiana.
I may be a Republican, but I have enough respect for Hillary Clinton’s daunting intelligence not to fear her selecting a creep like Doug Kmiec as a running mate, even though she is currently play-acting as if she’s not sure she wants the job. Look into this man’s background and see if you would be dumb enough to offer him a chance to ruin your entire life’s career. There are plenty of other men (and women) who could do that for Hilary if she truly is ambivalent about finally becoming president or is just trying to get her worshippers to insist she run, as in, “Beg me, beg me!”
Hillary Clinton is not someone I would pump up as someone to respect. But I am not surprised because I have heard other people express themselves as you have in regards to Hillary, they think that she is a woman of intelligence and respect. Really? These are sad times to me….respect is an offering of the secularism ideals.
Abeca, I apologize if I gave the impression that I respect Hillary Clinton. I respect her intelligence, which is a gift from God, and I respect God, not Hillary. She is misusing her intelligence in most cases because she lacks a respect for so many traditional Christian values. However, I do respect her ability to avoid choosing someone like Doug Kmiec.
I am close friends with a colleague of the priest who died in the car Kmiec was driving, and I am good friends with some of Kmiec’s Pepperdine peers, all of them Protestants, each and every one of them far better Christians than Doug . . . not that that in itself would stop Hillary from considering this reprobate as a running mate. But there are many other things, some of them known to the public, that would make Kmiec a disastrous choice as a running mate as well as a disastrous sitting Vice President of the United States of America. In comparison, Joe Biden would look like an altar boy.
Apparently this man doesn’t believe in Modesty, a gift of the Holy Spirit. I guess he’s so ambitious that he’s going to go “out on a limb” and run for Congress, so he can continue to be at the beck-and-call of the “Demoncracktic” Party. Sorry, but I just can’t take this guy seriously, as a Catholic, or otherwise, but someone will, and that’s the problem. He certainly appears to be a CINO, but that hasn’t stopped him in the past, so what’s to stop him now?
Professor Kmiec must have snapped back in 2008. And now we see that he thinks it is smart to announce before running that he is using the office as a stepping stone. His opponent will crush him for that one remark. The old professor has lost it.
A Catholic in good conscience can not endorse any political candidate who is publicly immoral.
A Catholic can not endorse a political candidate who champions the savage killing of unborn babies.
Kmiec is a sad testimony to the failure of our bishops to provide moral Catholic
leadership.
Hey Bill M., Kmiec is responsible for his politics, don’t blame this man’s opinions or actions on anyone but him. And yes, he like the rest of us, needs to repent.
You may be right, that we cannot endorse any political candidate who is publicly immoral. Would you agree, however, that that means we could never vote for a candidate who would vote? At what point is it better to vote, on balance, for the lesser of two evils? (That is a question, not a statement).
If Obama/Clinton/whomever is for abortion, but believes and supports other things in which we believe, can we vote for them? Let’s stipulate that any democrat that runs must be a supporter of abortion rights, does that mean that we cannot vote for any democrat? If a republican does not support most of the church’s belief on social justice, must we also not vote for them? We need to elect someone to the office of President, Congress, etc. but none seem to meet the basic requirements of the Catholic faith. What are we to do?
Bill,
BOY YOU GOT THAT RIGHT!
May God have mercy on an amoral Amerika!
Viva Cristo Rey!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
Kenneth, even for someone with your fierce orthodoxy, your comment on Facebook was a bit judgmental, don’t you think?
Let me guess. The bishop where Kmiec lives passes the potato to the bishop where Kmiec teaches, who passes it to the bishop where Kmiec has a second home, who passes it the bishop where Kmiec might move if he is elected, etc.
RINO$ 4 Sale – Get Yer RINO$ Now, before the cost goes way up
Gosh, what wonderful comments here. Sometimes it is pure unadulterated joy to connect mentally with my fellow Catholics, especially when we all sing in harmony in support of high order morality and in denouncing all the evils of our age. I feel like I just attended a wonderful Bible study session, and we’ll all about to go out for fellowship. But alas, where are our truly Catholic political leaders? Are those who are truly Catholic truly unelectable?
Kmiec dares to use our Pope to make himself look palatable. Shame on him!
“And Jesus wept,” but now for different reasons — the massacre of the innocent unborn.
A Catholic identity can be a valuable commodity in the world if one is willing
to betray the Church in supporting persons or agendas hostile to her.