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WASHINGTON, D.C., April 18, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Douglas Kmiec, the Catholic Pepperdine law professor who became infamous among orthodox Catholics for enthusiastically supporting the pro-abortion Obama’s candidacy in 2008, has resigned the U.S. ambassadorship to Malta. He had been appointed to the position by the president. 

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Kmiec’s resignation comes in the wake of negative feedback from the State Department’s Inspector General (IG) accusing Kmiec of spending too much of his time while ambassador writing articles related to the Catholic faith. The L.A. Times reports that the review also contained positive feedback on Kmiec’s initiatives and staff morale.

However, Kmiec took offense at the report, claiming in a letter to the president that was also sent to media outlets that the IG’s action permanently damaged his reputation, and even accusing the office of a personal vendetta. Kmiec said he would resign his position on August 15.

“The OIG … expressed dissatisfaction with the extent of time … that I have devoted to promoting what I know you believe in most strongly – namely personal faith and greater mutual respect,” Kmiec told Obama in the letter. “I doubt very much whether one could ever spend too much time on this subject.”

In a public statement, Kmiec said that the report “impugned” his reputation such that “I can no longer be certain that I am in a position with my government to have the needs and perspectives [of Malta] heard in the best possible light.”

Kmiec claimed in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the report was retribution for his opinion while serving in President Reagan’s Office of Legal Counsel that the scope of authority of the Office of Inspector General be more limited. “That opinion stung the OIG and I suspect I have just experienced a ‘sting-back,’” wrote Kmiec, as quoted by the Times of Malta.

Tim Rutten of the L.A. Times said that Kmiec “believes he was personally charged by the White House with promoting President Obama’s interfaith initiatives” and that the bad report was the product of a State Department attempt to “silence” him.

In addition to defending the deeply pro-abortion Obama as a “pro-life” candidate, Kmiec drew ire from the Catholic community in 2009 by suggesting that homosexual unions should be “accommodated.”

“It’s too bad Ambassador Kmiec did not resign in protest the day after the president he described as ‘pro-life’ signed health care legislation containing federal funding for abortion,” said Deal Hudson of Catholic Advocate.