The Chinese will be Insulted if We Don’t Name a Die-Hard Maoist as Ambassador!

I agree with Henry and Tim. Bainbridge’s critique of Doug Kmiec as Vatican Ambassador has nothing to do with Kmiec’s actual policy views, but rather with the fact that Kmiec vocally supported Obama. Bainbridge further argues that Kmiec’s support allowed Obama to win over all the fake Catholics, and consequently that real Catholics will be insulted by his appointment. The result of this argument seems to be that Obama needs to appoint a real Catholic, the measure of which will be that said person didn’t support Obama.

Indeed, I think Henry’s being far too kind to Professor Bainbridge when he refers to this argument as “puzzling”. As far as I can tell, there’s just no way to make this make sense. Bainbridge’s latest argument is that Kmiec clearly likes Obama better than he likes Pope Benedict, and as such he’s unqualified for the post of United States Ambassador to the Holy See. Again, it’s hard for me to find the nougat of a sensible argument here; it just seems kind of silly.