In his Tribune article, Kmiec outrageously says that Republicans don't care about "helping" the country, that they denigrate the "values, hopes and planning of others," and have "no interest in family, work or neighborhood." After heaping such calumny onto the GOP, he then does further damage to poor Mitt Romney by happily reminding us that Romney is a "flip flopper" that should join the Obama administration. Some friend he is!
Douglas Kmiec used to have a certain reputation as a serious man of the law and a man of religious conviction. Apparently that reputation is no longer important to him if this display of name-calling is any indication.
Kmiec unleashes a false premise in the very first paragraph by taking the Democrat's position that the so-called stimulus bill actually does anything to stimulate the economy. But even Kmiec agrees that the bill is also a massive welfare bill by pointing out the new provisions that are directed at "basic health care, job training, and in the near term, unemployment benefits and food."
Following that admission -- a thing he paints as a positive good -- Kmiec then rips into the motives of Senator Judd Gregg, the man that recently turned down President Obama's offer of a cabinet position. Kmeic decides that the "only reason" that Senator Gregg could possibly have turned down the cabinet position is because Gregg doesn't "want to help" the country.
One wonders how Mr. Kmiec could have gotten into Senator Gregg's head to know this? Apparently how Kmiec infers this disinterest in "helping" the country is via a purposeful misinterpretation of Gregg's stated refusal of the position offered by Obama. What Gregg said was that his governing philosophies clashed with Obama's and because of that he didn't think they would make a good team. Gregg's position is clear. He stands on the opposite side of the issues with Obama and, therefore, could not in good conscience be subservient to Obama, the man that would be running the show.
Gregg's is a principled position to take. After all, when one joins a team run by a strong team captain, one will be required to abide by that captain's directions. But if you know ahead of time that said captain holds ideas you are firmly against, well it's best not to even join the team in the first place.
But this isn't good enough for Kmiec. He thinks Gregg should have thrown away his principles -- like Kmiec himself has done, I guess -- and signed onto the winning team or risk being from the party that is known for "denigrating the values, hopes and planning of others."
Kmiec's next apostasy is to claim that the GOP's refusal to agree to this giant welfare package is somehow a refutation of Ronald Reagan's legacy.
In 1980, Ronald Reagan won many Democrats and independents over to his side by paying special attention to "family, work, neighborhood, peace and freedom." In the last eight years, peace gave way to military occupation with a decidedly murky objective. The freedom of Americans and others has been likewise put at risk by the provocation of hatred and suspicion in cultural circumstances we know little about. And now the GOP is apparently confessing little or no interest in family, work or neighborhood. How else can one explain total disinterest in a stimulus bill that provides $116 billion in direct tax relief for workers, another $70 billion in tax relief for the middle class and that provides economic incentives to buy energy-efficient cars, houses by first-time home buyers and provides $2 billion for health care for the needy and the elderly?
Just look at the overheated, nonsensical rhetoric of that! It is a logical fallacy to say that because the GOP does not support this pork laden bill then the GOP doesn't care about tax relief. Were it up to Republicans there would have been far more tax relief in this mess of a bill. Kmiec has employed the "when have you stopped beating your wife" argument here.
How insincere.
He goes on to insinuate that the GOP's early anti-slavery days is a legacy destroyed by its not voting for this gigantic enlargement of the state today and that Gregg should have seen nothing wrong with taking an office that was in the process of having powers stripped from it.
As to that last, Kmiec seems to imagine that Gregg's pique at Obama's plans to remove the implementation of the census from the Commerce department he'd have headed was somehow the GOP's grab for power and not Obama's. This just boggles the mind. Obama announces he is going to take the census away from the department where its been carried out for ages and put it in his own offices, yet Kmiec scolds the GOP for it's need for power over the census? It's OBAMA that is proposing taking power over the census, not the GOP!
In his penultimate paragraph, Kmiec does his old fried Mitt Romney no favors by dragging his name into this anti-GOP screed claiming that Obama should appoint the former Massachusetts governor as the next nominee for the Commerce Department. And what is Romney's chief qualification in Kmiec's eyes? Romney is a "flip flopper" that can "work to find common ground."
Were I Mr. Romney, I'd not be thanking Kmiec for reminding the voters that I have no principles and will do anything to "work with" the other side!
Lastly, Douglas Kmiec has a warning for that dastardly GOP:
The GOP needs to abandon its suicidal ways before it's too late--for them and, more important, for a nation that benefits from the contest of liberal and conservative ideas and the hard work that it takes to meld them into responsible and prudent policy.
That's right, GOP. Throw away those silly principles of personal responsibility, low taxes, and that anti-welfare attitude and sign onto the far left's ideas quick... or it will be too late.
Now, doesn't this doom-saying seem to demolish the campaign of "hope" that Kmiec was so proud to sign onto when he jettisoned the Republican Party to join team Obama last year? Sadly, hope wasn't the only thing Kmiec jettisoned when he jumped ship and swam over to the S.S. Obama.
(Photo credit: Harvard Gazette/Jon Chase)
