Oh That Mike Pence, What A Flirt
He flirted with the right thing, until he saw that it was wrong for him.
For a meager nanosecond, I felt a slight kinship with Mike Pence.
Not that he wasn’t the toady of all toadies. For four years he stood like the specious sycophant he was, praising every word and blessing every lie from his leader. Every dangerous lie, every menacing message, every treacherous threat.
That’s toady with a capital T.
The former vice president did nothing to diminish the devil who made him what he was. Mike Pence bears some blame. Mike Pence shares some shame.
But still, on January 6th, I was struck with a political parallel to a postulate I learned in my years covering the Middle East, where the essence of alliances and rivalries is, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” and perhaps the prime paradigm is Saudi Arabia and Israel. Saudi Arabia’s enemy is Iran. Israel’s enemy is Iran. So these days they are in bed together— if not actually sleeping soundly— because their common enemy is Iran.
That’s why I had that preternatural nanosecond back in January when I felt a twinge of togetherness with Pence. He’d actually agreed to certify the verified results of a free election. He’d actually refused to play along with his bullying boss.
The enemy of my enemy felt like my friend.
Sure, in the months leading up to January 6th he had religiously restated the party lie— and party line— that the election was rigged. In all likelihood his fleeting fling with integrity was a political calculation. But these days, what isn’t? For whatever reason, Mike Pence finally did the right thing.
So Trump turned to what he knows: the wrong thing. He trashed Pence. Viciously. Then the insurrectionists threatened Pence. Violently.
“Hang Mike Pence” rang through the Capitol. They even brought a noose. If you don’t think at least some of them meant business, look again at pictures of these enemies of democracy. They came armed and dressed and primed for battle. Pence had to hustle for his life.
Not that he had become the Barry Goldwater of his age. I was in Washington more than 46 years ago helping produce ABC’s coverage of Watergate when the honorable Goldwater, who cared about our republic, told Richard Nixon the gig was up. Pence, ever obsequious to his patron, helped keep the gig alive. The only thing he and Goldwater ever had in common was the color of their hair.
But still, once he briefly broke ranks, Mike Pence had both Donald Trump and the combined forces of The Proud Boys and The Oath Keepers and QAnon going for his throat.
The enemy of my enemy seemed like my friend.
It was not, however, bound to last. As Trevor Noah noted, obedience school was bound to kick in.
It did, yesterday, when Pence wrote in a column for the conservative Heritage Foundation that there had been “significant voting irregularities” in the 2020 election— which to this day no one has supported with evidence. He had the gall to go on and say that the insurrection prevented “a substantive discussion in Congress about election integrity in America.” The insurrection his servility helped fuel, until he had to run from it himself.
Irregularities? Mike Pence put his finger in the wind and felt which way it blew.
This was a new political calculation. And the end of my nanosecond of pity.
Evidently this man from the cornfields of Indiana still hasn’t learned, you reap what you sow.
Evidently it’s still fair to call the man toady, with a capital T.
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For almost five decades Greg Dobbs has been a correspondent for two television networks, a political columnist for The Denver Post, a moderator on Rocky Mountain PBS, and author of “Life in the Wrong Lane.” He has covered presidencies at home and international crises around the globe. He won three Emmys, and the Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. This essay and others also are published— with images— on BoomerCafe.com.
Brilliant. I sense a new energy in your writing; always excellent, but now more powerful than ever.
I guess it helps to have truth and history on your side.
Keep it up, Greg. We need your insights.
I'm savoring your articles as much as Heather Cox Richardson's.
Thanks for the insight as I too had that moment of misplaced pity for Mike Pence