09 November 2008

Here's what I love: Doug Kmiec justifies the current pro-choice regime--and all the suffering of the unborn it entails--claiming the Democrats will do more to further the pro-life cause than the Republicans, and then takes umbrage when Ross Douthat calls him a "useful idiot." Kmiec then proceeds to offer a patronizing lecture on the importance of charity:
Genuine love and affection do not reside on the Internet, so I cannot extend it to you, but in my heart, I forgive your great unkindness. I do hope you can free yourself from its enslavement. Realize that your meaning is bound up in the occasions in your life to be of service. Ross, once you allow yourself to see your dependence upon others, and their need for you, I am certain you would appreciate the cruelty of what you have written.
This is too rich. In Kmiec's world, brutality to those in the womb must be tolerated (because of religious pluralism), but insensitivity in speech is not--particularly when directed toward him. (For my part, I can think of many more choice words that could be thrown his way...)

He then cites as support for his position the fact that "54 percent of the Catholics in America saw exactly what I see in Barack Obama." Indeed--the percentage whose love for Mother Church is second only to Sunday morning sports. As to FOCA, it gets a passing (convoluted) mention:
[Obama's] party commitments have not let his mind free of ill-considered measures like FOCA, but those who came to his side because the Republicans had defaulted on the issue of life hope the Congress enacts a law that will promote life and not invite its destruction.
--"Hope" being the key word here, as Kmiec knows full well that Obama promised that his first act as president would be to sign FOCA into law, and that he voted four separate times against protecting infants born alive after a botched abortion. He is also likely to reverse the Bush administration's decision not to contribute to the United Nations Population Fund (which facilitates China's forced-abortion policy). If Obama makes good on his promise, Kmiec--and all those other Catholics duped by his message of "hope" and "change"--will be eating their own words. And the rest of us will, thankfully, be spared their silly lectures on sensitivity.

In any case, Tucker Carlson had some advice to offer Kmiec:
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.

Get some perspective. And for God's sake, stop whining. [I]f 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.