U.S. Ambassador Criticized by State Department for ‘Faith-Based Writing’ Resigns‏

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"The U.S. ambassador to Malta, an important Roman Catholic supporter of President Barack Obama, said Sunday he would resign after a State Department report criticized him for spending too much time writing and speaking about his religious beliefs.

In letters to Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Douglas Kmiec said he would step down Aug. 15. He told The Associated Press that no one pressured him to leave.

Kmiec was a well-known conservative law professor and commentator before being taking the job in 2009. But a report this month by the State Department’s inspector general rebuked Kmiec for concentrating too much on issues such as abortion and his faith, while neglecting his ambassadorial duties

The audit of the U.S. Embassy in Malta said Kmiec’s “outside activities have detracted from his attention to core mission goals” in the Mediterranean island nation, such as promoting maritime security and American business. It acknowledged the wide respect for Kmiec in the conservative, Roman Catholic country of Malta, but said his articles distracted him and embassy officials by forcing them to carefully review his writing. They upset administration officials in Washington, too, it noted.

In his letter to Clinton, Kmiec said the report was based on “unsupported speculation that someone doing as much writing as I have done could not have also been devoted to the embassy mission.”

The ambassador claimed, in his letter to Clinton, that the inspector general report’s authors had “failed to read any of my writing or see its highly positive effect on our bilateral relations.”

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