Good Evening. Hope everyone is taking it easy and trying not to get to sucked into the craziness out there. As you all know by now. The IR team are not supporters of former Indiana Governor now Vice President Mike Pence. You may recall our recent blog post about his email scandal. We all have been chided by many of our fellow republicans for saying that Mike Pence is nothing more than an opportunistic clod. Given Mr. Pence's conduct over the past week or so in regards to his unsuccessful attempt to "persuade" many of his former congressional colleagues to sell out there principles and support the American Health Care Act, aka AHCA, aka RyanCare, aka TrumpCare/ObamaCare Lite. We feel more than vindicated in our assessment of Mike Pence as a man and as a politician. Over at Redstate.com Jim Jamits has written an article critical of Vice President Pence titled "Never Trust Anyone Who Asks You to ‘Take One for the Team’"
Jamitis writes:
As someone who used to have high hopes for what Vice President Mike Pence might do for the conservative movement and who never got on board the Trump train, I wasn’t thrilled that Pence enthusiastically became Trump’s running mate. I had mixed feelings.
Part of me said that it’s good someone like Pence would have Trump’s ear, but another part wondered whether I had been wrong about Pence from the beginning. How could a solid ideological conservative submit to a guy like Trump?
Some of the anecdotes reported in the wake of the AHCA failure make me think Pence is just another Washington insider driven by politics instead of principle. Politico Magazine describes how the Freedom Caucus and their policy concerns were treated by the White House.
Quoting from Politico Jamitis says:
They hoped for a meeting with Trump and an opportunity to negotiate some major policy changes directly with him. Instead, they found themselves hauled into the less-than-inspiring Executive Office Building for a pep rally with Vice President Mike Pence, chief of staff Reince Priebus, Bannon, and other members of Trump’s inner circle—but not the president himself. (As an aside, it’s impossible to ignore the failure of Pence, Price and Mulvaney, three former conservative darlings while in the Congress, to sell more of their ideological brethren on this bill.)
Jamitis responds to Politico by stating:
It’s impossible to ignore the failure because for the Freedom Caucus it was probably impossible to ignore the the defection of these men to the cult of Trump. They had abandoned their principled roots for a seat at the table of power.
The incident paints a picture of Pence as just another cynical Washington horse trader trying to score the political win even if it meant arbitrarily discarding the notion of actually repealing Obamacare.
Quoting again from Politico:
Members of the Freedom Caucus realized right away that there would be no negotiating. Pence tried to pump up the conservatives, telling them the fight was theirs to win and that they needed to help Trump and Ryan score a victory for the new administration. The plea landed on deaf ears. “Take one for the team” was a phrase repeatedly deployed; [Emphasis added]
Jamitis offers these parting thoughts about Pence's attempt atnegotiating with strong arming his fellow republicans into doing the will of his D.C. masters:
In the GOP, being asked—or told—to “take one for the team” means two things. One, you are not really considered part of the “team,” and therefore your only value is as cannon fodder or as a scapegoat. Two, your values, principles, and campaign promises are worth spit to whomever is asking you. Only your vote matters and you should expect no reward from the team for selling it to them cheaply.
In theory, making a sacrifice for the good of something bigger than yourself can be a noble act, but when asked to compromise your principles for a dubious good, follow your instincts and not the crowd.
After a lifetime of working and being active in the republican party. We are in agreement with Mr. Jamitis's view of what "taking one for the team" really mean in the world of politics. What Jim Jamitis and many others many not quite realize is that Mike Pence doesn't have any principles! Of course the Indianapolis media's refusal to actually point out the truth about Pence probably explains a lot as to why so many people have such an unrealistic view of Pence. Dan Carden of the Northwest Indiana Times pointed out last year on twitter that Mike Pence had stated on his 2011 tax return that he and his wife Karen lived in Arlington, Virginia back when he was getting ready to run for Governor:
Jamitis writes:
As someone who used to have high hopes for what Vice President Mike Pence might do for the conservative movement and who never got on board the Trump train, I wasn’t thrilled that Pence enthusiastically became Trump’s running mate. I had mixed feelings.
Part of me said that it’s good someone like Pence would have Trump’s ear, but another part wondered whether I had been wrong about Pence from the beginning. How could a solid ideological conservative submit to a guy like Trump?
Some of the anecdotes reported in the wake of the AHCA failure make me think Pence is just another Washington insider driven by politics instead of principle. Politico Magazine describes how the Freedom Caucus and their policy concerns were treated by the White House.
Quoting from Politico Jamitis says:
They hoped for a meeting with Trump and an opportunity to negotiate some major policy changes directly with him. Instead, they found themselves hauled into the less-than-inspiring Executive Office Building for a pep rally with Vice President Mike Pence, chief of staff Reince Priebus, Bannon, and other members of Trump’s inner circle—but not the president himself. (As an aside, it’s impossible to ignore the failure of Pence, Price and Mulvaney, three former conservative darlings while in the Congress, to sell more of their ideological brethren on this bill.)
Jamitis responds to Politico by stating:
It’s impossible to ignore the failure because for the Freedom Caucus it was probably impossible to ignore the the defection of these men to the cult of Trump. They had abandoned their principled roots for a seat at the table of power.
The incident paints a picture of Pence as just another cynical Washington horse trader trying to score the political win even if it meant arbitrarily discarding the notion of actually repealing Obamacare.
Quoting again from Politico:
Members of the Freedom Caucus realized right away that there would be no negotiating. Pence tried to pump up the conservatives, telling them the fight was theirs to win and that they needed to help Trump and Ryan score a victory for the new administration. The plea landed on deaf ears. “Take one for the team” was a phrase repeatedly deployed; [Emphasis added]
Jamitis offers these parting thoughts about Pence's attempt at
In the GOP, being asked—or told—to “take one for the team” means two things. One, you are not really considered part of the “team,” and therefore your only value is as cannon fodder or as a scapegoat. Two, your values, principles, and campaign promises are worth spit to whomever is asking you. Only your vote matters and you should expect no reward from the team for selling it to them cheaply.
In theory, making a sacrifice for the good of something bigger than yourself can be a noble act, but when asked to compromise your principles for a dubious good, follow your instincts and not the crowd.
After a lifetime of working and being active in the republican party. We are in agreement with Mr. Jamitis's view of what "taking one for the team" really mean in the world of politics. What Jim Jamitis and many others many not quite realize is that Mike Pence doesn't have any principles! Of course the Indianapolis media's refusal to actually point out the truth about Pence probably explains a lot as to why so many people have such an unrealistic view of Pence. Dan Carden of the Northwest Indiana Times pointed out last year on twitter that Mike Pence had stated on his 2011 tax return that he and his wife Karen lived in Arlington, Virginia back when he was getting ready to run for Governor:
 | @nwi_DanCarden | |
@KyleBabcock @indysentinel Oh hey, look who said he lived in Arlington, Va. in 2012 while running for Ind. governor pic.twitter.com/OHTakUWwDz
by: Dan Carden @nwi_DanCarden
This is interesting because Article V, Section VII of the Indiana Constitution states: Section 7. No person shall be eligible to the office of Governor or Lieutenant Governor, who shall not have been five years a citizen of the United States, and also a resident of the State of Indiana during the five years next preceding his election; nor shall any person be eligible to either of the said offices, who shall not have attained the age of thirty years. So how could Mike Pence meet the eligibility requirements to be Governor if as he stated on his 2011 Income Tax Return that he and his wife lived in Virginia? As all taxpayers are aware the address you put down on your Income Tax Return is supposed to be the address at which you are currently residing when you file taxes. Former Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White was crucified by the Indiana political, media and legal establishment because they allege that he voted in the wrong voter precinct one time! So using the standard applied to Charlie White former Governor Pence should have some awkward questions to answer! It is amazing to all of us that the Hillary Clinton campaign didn't do more opposition research on Pence during last years presidential race. No doubt Indiana and National Democrats have this and other information to use against Pence should he ever decide to run for President. We are all grateful that some of our fellow conservatives and republicans are waking up and seeing that Mike Pence is not our friend. Pence is nothing but a scheming little weasel that the republican party should toss out on his ass! We here at IR in the meantime are more than happy to see "Pampered Pence" be used as a piñata for frustrated republicans! Hope you enjoy being a global joke Mike! Here is Mike Pence's real self!:  | ||
Repeal and Replace Mike Pence.
ReplyDeleteFor years I've been saying about Mike Pence all I find in your post today. While nothing here in IR is news to me, I am grateful the truth about the completely phony Mike Pence continues to emerge.
DJT was not my first choice but by gosh he had my vote because Trump made far more sense than the completely corrupt old hag Hillary Rodham Clinton. How many more American assets and vital mineral ores would that aged witch sell to the Russians before we had nothing left for the American people who owned them? How many more wars would that crone start in the Middle East before we too are consumed by bombs and strife without end?
When Trump (more factually, when Trump's chilren) selected Mike Pence my heart sank and I again had to think through if and why I would vote for DJT with philosphically spineless Pence on his ticket.
I have every good reason to believe that there are RINO's in Trump's spehre directly because of Mike Pence (and that card carrying imbecile Reince Priebus). There is not one Constitutional Conservative in the Trump's inner circle and that is a problem as DJT's young liberal wife and young liberal Wall Street son in law aggregate more political power and are going to "rethink" politics. As if youth had the answer over experience.
That Mike Pence cowered and actively attempted to sell the RYANcare snake oil any half-brainless person could see was nothing more than a very big lie and a continuation of the excrement of Obamacare is very telling. Anyone who heard quisling Mike Pence dodge the masterful questions put to him by Mark Levin after Pence requested to come on Levin's show to sell RYANcare knows Pence is a waste of time for constitutional conservatism.
He's just a standard, run-of-the-mill neocon. Jim Webb is a better cup of tea, but he saw through the chickenhawk nature of the bellicose Republicans like Pence and the Dems proved they are not a soft-landing spot for those with more peaceful views. D and R are just the two wings of the War Party.
ReplyDeletehttp://veteransforpeaceindianapolis.blogspot.com/2017/03/governments-are-not-real-rice-is-real.html?m=1