In a column published in May 2016, Indianapolis Star columnist Tim Swarans wrote about the state of the re-election campaign for Indiana’s Governor, Mike Pence.
The best Pence’s campaign could do was to point to
“recent polling that shows the governor not only leading by 4 percentage points but also close to the 50 percent mark, a crucial threshold for incumbents in the buildup to Election.”</blockquote>
Pence had come to the Governor’s office on the coattails of his predecessor, Mitch Daniels. Daniels was far from tyrannical on social issues. He focused on programs that advanced Indiana’s economy.
Pence, once he was sworn in, adopted social policies that make Florida Governor Mike DiSantis look like a wuss. All the way to trying to get a law through the legislature making same sex marriage illegal in the State of Indiana.
Thus, when he was running for re-election in 2016, Pence had so exasperated suburban Republicans that there was serious doubt he could win.
Came the Trumps.
They visited Pence in the Governor’s mansion but given the wobbly state of his re-election campaign, according to Political. “Trump didn’t particularly like Pence. To Trump, he carried the whiff of a loser.”
In the end, the campaign elders decided Pence was a better pick to keep the Republican Conventioneers in control than others like Ted Cruz, Newt Gingrich, or Chris Christy to name a few on that cycle’s short list.
Pence was thrown a life line by Trump and he wisely grabbed it.
We know this about Trump: If he’s ever done anything on your behalf, or thinks he has ever done anything on your behalf, he believes he owns you for life.
Pence spent his four years as Vice President doing Vice President stuff. On its own, nothing newsworthy. Never did anything Trump would see as an attempt to upstage the boss. Protected Trump’s right flank by playing up to the social conservatives that Trump pretended to care about, but Pence really did.
There was a scene in the Cabinet room pretty early on, when Trump took his little bottle of water into his little hand and placed it on the floor next to him. Pence, watching this, looked around the room, took HIS little bottle of water and placed it on the floor next to his chair just as Trump had done.
Trump’s water boy.
Then came January 6, 2021.
Trump knew he had lost, but in that magic way of thinking that Trump has, convinced himself the election had been stolen.
Trump wanted Pence to pay off the debt by refusing to certify the legally cast ballots of Electors and send the election to the House of Representatives.
To help drive his point home, the insurrectionists erected a hangman’s gallows and chanted “Hang Mike Pence.” Trump was quoted by a White House aide as having said Pence “deserves it.”
I know you remember this: In a contest for President, each state gets one vote. California? One vote. Wyoming? Also one vote.
Even though Democrats controlled the House, more state delegations were in control of Republicans and it was not unlikely that Trump would be declared the winner.
SIDEBAR
The Vice President is chosen by the U.S. Senate where each Senator gets one vote.
END SIDEBAR
We don’t know what private conversations Pence may have had with Trump in the interval between election day and Jan. 6 largely because Pence refused to honor a subpoena from the Jan. 6 Committee on the grounds he was member of the Administration and, thus, not subject to the whims of the Legislative Branch.
Now, the Special Counsel Jack Smith, has issued a subpoena for Pence to testify. Pence is fighting that order on the grounds that as VP, he was President of the Senate and therefore a creature of the Congress and not subject to the whims of the Executive Branch,
Pence is showing us how to can contort your integrity. It’s easy if you have no backbone.
See you next week.
