[Jonathan Adler, July 2, 2009 at 3:57pm] Trackbacks
Kmiec to Malta:

Douglas Kmiec, who served in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel during two Republican Administrations and headed up the legal advisory team for Mitt Romney's presidential bid, will be named the Ambassador to Malta. After Romney withdrew from the presidential race, Kmiec threw his support behind Barack Obama and has since defended many of the President's initiatives and appointments.

SP:
Thirty pieces of... nickel.
7.2.2009 4:03pm
Soronel Haetir (mail):
Since Obama hasn't altered all that much on lots of Bush's controversial positions I don't see that there is a great deal to complain about the positions themselves.

Personally I'm glad that on lots of these he found out that being in charge is tough.
7.2.2009 4:11pm
aphill:
Exiled to a small island in the Mediterranean...good place for him.
7.2.2009 4:16pm
Dominick (mail):
I'm still wondering when exactly the body snatchers came for Kmiec. Talk about an abrupt about face on pretty much every ethical and legal issue I'd ever seen him write about. And after all that soul-selling defense of every position espoused by Obama, all he gets is the Malta job? I wonder if he thinks it's worth it.
7.2.2009 4:18pm
ruuffles (mail) (www):

And after all that soul-selling defense of every position espoused by Obama, all he gets is the Malta job?

I hear they have wonderful trails for hiking in the mountains.
7.2.2009 4:19pm
Blue:
So that's the cost of a man's soul these days--Malta.
7.2.2009 4:20pm
Thorley Winston (mail) (www):
Malta’s loss is Pepperdine University’s gain.
7.2.2009 4:21pm
Bob from Ohio (mail):
"Why Richard Douglas, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world... but for WalesMalta?"
7.2.2009 4:25pm
Pliny, the Elder (mail):
It does not profit a man to lose his soul and gain the whole world-but Malta?!
(With apologies to Robert Bolt)
7.2.2009 4:26pm
ruuffles (mail) (www):
I wonder what job Ted Olson will get.
7.2.2009 4:26pm
Pliny, the Elder (mail):
Bob beat me to it!
Curses, foiled again.
7.2.2009 4:27pm
M N Ralph:
Malta gets their own ambassador? Seems like we could save a little scratch by letting the Italian guy handle the job on the side.
7.2.2009 4:36pm
Andy Bolen (mail):
Best comment threat ever. I can't even pick a winner... there are so many.
7.2.2009 4:41pm
A.S.:
Going from Pepperdine to Malta? This guy must really like the beach. I would think he'd shoot for Andorra or Lichtenstein or something just to mix it up a little bit.
7.2.2009 4:41pm
hawkins:
Malta is an independent nation (according to Wiki, at least)
7.2.2009 4:43pm
rick.felt:
I imagine that Christopher Buckley will get Monaco. Lovely place to moor your yacht.
7.2.2009 4:44pm
Oren:

Malta gets their own ambassador? Seems like we could save a little scratch by letting the Italian guy handle the job on the side.

He's already night-shifting the Vatican and Moncao ambassadorships, give the man a break!
7.2.2009 4:44pm
Hugh Hewitt:
You know who this benefits?

Mitt Romney.
7.2.2009 4:46pm
LTR:
Good dog, Dougie!
7.2.2009 4:55pm
Bill Poser (mail) (www):
Being ambassador to Malta is probably a nice job. There aren't any major issues between the US and Malta so you probably have lots of free time in which to enjoy the beach, hiking, the interesting archaeological ruins and the food. If you like languages, the local language is a very interesting variety of Arabic conveniently written in a version of the Roman alphabet. Sounds like a great vacation.
7.2.2009 4:59pm
rick.felt:
So what's Andrew Sullivan going to get?

I've got nothing. I can't figure out how to work the "bear" angle, the "circumcision" angle, the "excitable" angle, the "HardNSolidDC" angle, the "heart-ache" angle, or the "Last True Conservative" angle. Little help?
7.2.2009 5:00pm
Nunzio:
Doesn't Malta still have to give Spain one be-jeweled Falcon statutette every year?
7.2.2009 5:02pm
rick.felt:
Oh, I've got it: Sully can't be sent abroad, not when he's so close to discovering the truth about Trig's real mom.
7.2.2009 5:03pm
BRM:
Ambassador to Malta sure as hell beats being a law school dean.
7.2.2009 5:04pm
hawkins:

So what's Andrew Sullivan going to get?


Huh? Did you expect him to support McCain?
7.2.2009 5:06pm
Jim Hu:
The stuff that dreams are made of
7.2.2009 5:10pm
The Unbeliever:
Pop quiz: what's the last real international issue we had to hash out with Malta that required more than an hour's work by a diplomat?

And could Doug Kmiec answer the above question, without using Google+Wikipedia, before he got the ambassador nomination?
7.2.2009 5:11pm
Blue:
Was Malta part of the Coalition of the Willing?
7.2.2009 5:14pm
hawkins:

Pop quiz: what's the last real international issue we had to hash out with Malta that required more than an hour's work by a diplomat?


I assume an issue or two arose during WWII
7.2.2009 5:16pm
Baseballhead (mail):
Coalition of the Willing? More like Coalition of the Relaxin'!
7.2.2009 5:20pm
Cornellian (mail):
Damn, first thing I thought was the Wales comment from A Man For All Seasons but I see about 10 guys already beat me to it.
7.2.2009 5:20pm
Desiderius:
This thread is an embarrassment. Imagine that the guy is a human being and try again.
7.2.2009 5:24pm
A Law Dawg:
This thread is an embarrassment. Imagine that the guy is a human being and try again.


I see this is your first time on the Internet.
7.2.2009 5:27pm
Harry Eagar (mail):
If this is a reward, what do the runners-up get?
7.2.2009 5:28pm
Connecticut Lawyer (mail):
Desiderius,

Prof. Kimec is certainly a human being, albeit one who abandoned almost everything he ever stood for to support Obama, and who has now been rewarded for that support. I congratulate Obama for having the good sense to reward Kimec's change of heart, if you prefer a more neutral description. Obama has shown that at least where domestic politics are concerned, he understands Chicago rules and can play rough. It's too bad he seems befuddled by all those foreigners.
7.2.2009 5:30pm
Andy Bolen (mail):
This thread is an embarrassment. Imagine that the guy is a human being and try again.

If he weren't a human being, his disingenuousness and ambition wouldn't be so pathetic or such great fodder for humor. The jokes here depend on the fact that he's a particularly comical and foolish human being.
7.2.2009 5:37pm
The Unbeliever:
This thread is an embarrassment. Imagine that the guy is a human being and try again.
Your deficient sense of humor is equally embarrassing. Imagine yourself as a small yapping dog, the kind carried around by vacuous (and invariably blonde) celebrities in their purses, and try again.
7.2.2009 5:49pm
Officious Intermeddler:
The jokes here depend on the fact that he's a particularly comical and foolish human being.


And venal. Don't forget venal.
7.2.2009 5:50pm
Thersites:
What a pitiful, pathetic reward Kmiec got for betraying his supposedly core Catholic beliefs in order to endorse Obama and claim that Obama's positions were mandated by Catholic doctrine (as in gun control) or consistent with it (partial birth abortion).

The craven Kmiec didn't even get to be attorney general, the office given to the traitor Richard Rich for betraying Sir Thomas More in Robert Bolt's classic "A Man for All Seasons."

Who can forget the line in "A Man for All Seasons" where Sir Thomas More asks to see chain of office that Richard Rich was given to perjure himself and betray More. After examining it and being told that Sir Richard was made the Attorney General of Wales More says, "Richard, it profits a man nothing to trade his soul for the whole world, but for Wales ..."

Kmiec traded his soul for one of the most insignificant offices known to man. It is fitting, given what an ingratiating suck-up and sycophant Kmiec is.
7.2.2009 5:53pm
Desiderius:
Thanks so much, assholios assembled.

Good luck winning elections with that rancid 'tude.
7.2.2009 5:58pm
Gabriel Malor (mail):
Kmiec traded his soul for one of the most insignificant offices known to man. It is fitting, given what an ingratiating suck-up and sycophant Kmiec is.

It's not sycophancy. He just couldn't reconcile his Republican politics with his complete hatred for John McCain. So out came his self-contradicting support for pro-choice Barack Obama, with ever more confusing justifications.
7.2.2009 5:59pm