Posted on 07/23/2017 8:56:56 AM PDT by Kaslin
Donald Trump and those around him have made a long series of mistakes stemming from his campaign's contacts with Russians and subsequent inquiries into the matter, which raise the real possibility of his impeachment. But none of those compares to his biggest blunder: choosing Mike Pence as his running mate.
Pence is in a delicate position, which may be why he is seldom seen or heard from these days. On the one hand, his job as vice president obligates him to be a loyal member of the administration. On the other, he needs to maintain good relations with congressional Republicans, many of whom find Trump exasperating.
Pence has to give every sign of appearing to support Trump in advancing his agenda, lest his boss turn on him. That means cheerfully endorsing the nonsense that flows nonstop from Trump's mouth, including brazen lies.
But Pence can't go too far. He needs to avoid being completely contaminated by a president who violates every norm of ethics, behaves like a stooge of Vladimir Putin and keeps wading deeper into a scandal that may bring indictments. Pence has to look loyal without making his toadyism too slavish.
Fortunately for him, he's blessed with great adaptability in advancing his interests. A sanctimonious churchgoer who could pair up with a casino magnate, adulterer and self-declared sexual assailant without alienating followers of Jesus is not to be underestimated.
Still, Pence has a tricky path to negotiate, as vice presidents serving unpopular presidents have often learned. Hubert Humphrey, once a darling of liberals, became their nemesis for refusing to break with President Lyndon Johnson on the Vietnam War and lost the 1968 election to Richard Nixon.
Al Gore defended Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal but criticized his behavior once the impeachment crisis was over. His association with Clinton was both too close and not close enough, and it contributed to his narrow 2000 defeat.
Unlike everyone else in the administration, Pence does not serve at Trump's pleasure. Trump can demand that he do his bidding, but he can't fire him. Because Pence has been a GOP soldier for so long, Trump can't really damage him among the Republican rank and file. All this gives Pence a measure of freedom to protect himself from his boss.
More importantly, the vice president retains the esteem of congressional Republicans, who see him as their best friend in the administration and a reliable voice for conservative principles. Unlike Trump, he understands them, their political needs and the realities of legislating.
He also doesn't throw them under the bus. Trump infuriated House Republicans who had voted for an unpopular Obamacare replacement bill by calling it "mean," even after celebrating it with them at the White House. Pence wouldn't do that. His ability to stay on the good side of both his boss and his party reflects his political savvy and talent for self-preservation.
That's why he presents such a threat to Trump. Richard Nixon's best safeguard against impeachment was Vice President Spiro Agnew because congressional Democrats so loathed Agnew. When Agnew resigned after being charged in a bribery investigation, Nixon lost that shield.
He replaced Agnew with Rep. Gerald Ford, whom he saw as another "insurance policy" because, as Nixon biographer Jonathan Aitken wrote, "Ford was regarded by both Nixon and by many of his fellow Congressmen as decent but dumb." The more unthinkable a vice president is for the top job the more the president can get away with.
But this one is not unthinkable. Most Republicans in Congress would much rather deal with President Pence than with President Trump. He would be better at working with them and less prone to embarrassing them.
Anyone as conservative on abortion, gay rights and almost every other issue as Pence doesn't qualify as a Democratic dream. But Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer would probably prefer a mentally stable right-wing puritan to an unpredictable, thin-skinned narcissist. It would be less stressful to worry that Pence will attack reproductive freedom than to worry that Trump will nuke North Korea.
Trump may soon wish he had chosen for his running mate someone like Chris Christie or Ted Cruz. If he continues to self-destruct and the investigations produce more damaging revelations, members of Congress in both parties will eventually exhaust their patience, take a long look at Pence and say, "What are we waiting for?"
I stopped reading that Liberaltarian’s columns years ago.
Then there’s that OLD Joke from the Sea faring days, A fine Upstanding Mother of 2 sons, one became a Sailing Ship Captain seldom heard from and the other, became the Voice President, never to be heard from.
which raise the real possibility of his impeachment.
Mindless Bullshit!
Oh, absolutely, Trump is totally finished now. That’s the last nail in his coffin, he’ll be impeached any moment, and Pence needs to be able to reach out and grab the reigns at any moment. Any moment. Yep, any moment now, those articles of impeachment which were already filed by Democrats will get that massive surge of support and pull over enough Republicans to send it to the senate where they stand ready to absolutely stab Trump in the back...
Any moment...
Any moment now...
At the worst, 24 business hours, I guarantee...
(Are we really going to have to go through 8 years of this?)
Of course it is. Anything by that lunatic Steve Chapman is mindless BS, but that is why I posted the op-ed with the Hurl alert warning.
This is where these people absolutely lose me. You can say alot of things about Trump, but he never, ever, self declared him self as a sexual assailant, not even in the slightest. This was a meme that the democrats started with after the p*ss* grabbing tape came out. As if Trump said he assaulted women. I find that attempt about as intellectually dishonest and pathetic as anything they have tried on him. ANYONE who believes that stupidity is too far gone and cannot be reasoned with. I dont even bother listening to them anymore.
There was one so-called "conservative" columnist with the name of Kathleen Parker whose columns used to be in Townhall.com. Readers kept complaining about her and Townhall finally got rid of her. Her last column in Townhall.com was on November 11, 2009. She moved to CBS where she belongs
The best thing President Trump has done for our side has been to shine the light on all these fraudulent CONservatives in the media and in congress. They’ve been gaming us all these years, but now their DC scam is over for them. They can’t hide who they are anymore, and for that a big thanks to the president!
Townhall is part of the traitorous, viciously anti-Trump Salem Witch Media, which also includes Twitchy, HotAir, RedState, Human Events, The Right Scoop and Bearing Arms. I very much recommend FReepers boycott this evil, globalist organization.
I call them the Wall Street Bull worshipers.
I have never read anything of common sense from Steve Chapman.
Thanks for the heads-up.
I will not make the mistake of clicking on Townhall again.
Already figured it out about RedState etc.
Little Stevie Chapped@ss...
You could write a book about the opinionists masquerading as "journalists" and their reactions to the "brazen lies" of Clinton and Zerobama versus the purported lies of President Trump.
Many of these "jernalists" worked the Hill during the impeachment wars and protected Clinton from the consequences of his brazen lies.
While they were collectively fellating the seditious Muslim for the last eight years, the subject of his brazen lies was never even broached.
Neither have I. Out of curiosity I went went to the Chicago Tribune site to read the reader’s section about his Pence column 90 percent of the readers are like they want to kiss Chapman’s behind and are very anti President Trump and anti VP Mike Pence.
They're going to have a hard time explaining why their partisan stances on both presidents isn't nuclear hypocrisy.
Thank God For No Term Limits: The Democrats Have a Little Impeachment Problem
(48 hypocrites on the US Congressional Wall)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3564001/posts
You are lying. Do you realize that Hot Air and Twitchy were started by Michelle Malkin is 100 percent conservative, unlike you.
You obviously don't know what you are talking about.
THE SUBJECT IS STEVE CHAPMAN'S COLUMN: MIKE PENCE'S OPPORTUNITY AND THAT LUNATIC CHAPMAN HIMSELF.
IF YOU CAN'T STICK TO THE SUBJECT GTFOTT /end caplocks>
Seriously? Twitchy was NeverTrump and led the campaign to support serial liar Michelle Fields during her fake "assault" smears against Corey Lewandowski and Trump in 2016. And HotAir was as NeverTrump as you could get during the campaign. More like CUCKservative...unlike me.
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