Here's an interesting wrinkle in the saga of Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.), whose pending resignation after an affair with a staffer is sort of being lost in the news cycle. At a short news conference Wednesday (on a subject I'm writing up next), Luke Russert of NBC News asked Mike Pence (R-Ind.) when he learned about Souder's affair.
"I was approached by a journalist I think Wednesday of last week who asked if I had heard anything about my colleague," said Pence. "I indicated that I hadn't. But I did approach Mr. Souder on Thursday on the House floor to inform him of that inquiry, and it was at that point that he shared the fact that he had been involved in an extramarital affair.
But wait, there's more...
Pence's staff emails this statement:
"In response to a general media inquiry, Mr. Pence confronted Mr. Souder on Thursday. Mr. Souder confessed to an affair, but did not mention that it was with a part-time staff member. It was not until Sunday evening that Mr. Souder called Mr. Pence to inform him that the affair was with a part-time staff member. Mr. Pence encouraged Mr. Souder to resign immediately and notified ethics on Monday."
I suppose on the one hand you at least have to hand it to Rep. Mike Pence for walking the walk and talking the talk when it comes to morality and all that jazz. On the other, not allowing Souder himself to come forward prior to reporting the transgression doesn't indicate a lot of warm feelings among Indiana's Republican delegation.
Hoosier Congressman Mike Pence took to the floor of the House of Representatives to demand an investigation into what happened on April 20, 2010. But he's not interested in what caused the Deep Horizon oil rig to explode - he wants to know how he can blame the Obama administration:
"The American people deserve to know why the administration was slow to respond, why necessary equipment was not immediately on hand in the area and why the president did not fully deploy cabinet-level federal officials until he spoke at the White House on April 28th."
I want to make one thing clear: Pence isn't one of the handful of conservatives pushing the line that the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is "Obama's Katrina." That would be too moderate for the former talk radio host. Instead, "Pence asserted that Obama's response time was slow compared to Bush's response [to Hurricane Katrina] in 2005."
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and other Democrats have condemned these kind of remarks - and Pence's remarks specifically. But it turns out that Mike Pence's wild allegations are too much for his fellow Republicans.
The most thorough response came from Fox News host Jane Skinner, who was armed with the facts and refused to let Karl Rove get away with baseless allegations about a delayed response from the Obama administration. She told Rove that "the national response team was activated and later that day the President convened a meeting in the Oval Office with all those involved." (Watch the video of their exchange here.)
On Sunday's Meet the Press, host David Gregory interrupted Rep. Mike Pence's rant about immigration to point out that it was Republicans who killed immigration reform in 2007. Seriously, how inane do your talking points have to be for Dancing Dave to knock you down?
Watch - the video gets good at about 1:40 (partial transcript below the cut):
I've been very critical of Gregory since he took over Meet the Press - for example, I've knocked his refusal to fact-check guests, his obsession with polls and ignorance of policy, and his lack of any accountability for the flaws of his show - but this was decent journalism. Gregory was armed with the facts, and Pence had only his talking points.
Senate Republicans killed this bill. And they weren't alone - a certain Hoosier Congressman named Mike Pence wrote a special comment for the Washington Times about why he opposed the "amnesty bill":
I opposed the Senate immigration bill because of its core fallacy that millions of illegal immigrants could get right with the law without having to leave the country. For most Americans, and me, that is amnesty and I cannot support it. (Washington Times, June 10, 2007, page B3 - via Lexis search)
And even if the bill had gone through the Senate, Hoosier Republican Mark Souder was there to stop it in the House:
Mark Souder, the top Republican on the House sub-committee on border security, yesterday warned that the legislation would be "dead on arrival" in the House. (Financial Times, June 27, 2007, page 12 - via Lexis search)
But Gregory didn't go far enough in debunking Pence's tired talking points.
In both clips, Pence throws out a lot of numbers about "enforcement budgets". But those numbers aren't about enforcement or fences, they're about the failed "virtual fence". Media Matters debunked this a few days back, citing tons of statistics about the costs overruns and failed tests by this specific project.
Finally, Pence asserts that, "Phoenix, Arizona, is, is the kidnapping capital of the United State of America." He neglects to point out, as Phoenix police do, that the victims of these kidnappings are almost always drug dealers or other crime figures. And, contrary to what Rep. Pence implies here, "ICE says the spike [in kidnappings] stems from tighter enforcement on the porous Arizona-Mexico border in recent years."
This is in response to President Obama's Q & A with Republicans yesterday which is almost universally being hailed as a boffo performance by the President.
To me, personally, it’s not a surprise. I debated policy with Mike Pence once and the guy is a stone-cold idiot. That was a years ago and I’ve been surprised since then to learn that conservatives consider him an unusually sharp policy mind and I take leading rightwingers at their word about that. But it’s the kind of thing that I think most Americans aren’t aware of.
Here's another review referencing Pence that made me chuckle:
At the end, shaking hands with the president, Pence's face looked as if he'd sucked a lemon for an hour – and in a way he had.
Here's the full video of the "Rumble in Baltimore" as some are calling it:
Mike Pence, chairman of the House Republican Conference, is a possible 2012 presidential candidate, and today he's added some national-level talent to his political team: prominent Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway has joined his House reelection campaign as a strategist, and he's also announced that former Dan Quayle treasurer Bill Neale will serve as treasurer. Pence hasn't announced any plans for 2012, but it would seem unnecessary to get top GOP talent for a House reelection campaign, since Pence is relatively safe in his seat.
Pence's hyperpartisan positioning over the last year may have soured his chances statewide, but it appears the talking points machine may have his sights set on bigger things.
(...and if it gets him out of the state for any period of time, good riddance.)
Via Glenn Thrush over at Politico, it appears that Mike Pence really, really wants to complain about the passage of a health care reform bill in the House. So much so that he went ahead and kicked things off hours before voting started:
Apparently Mike Pence (R-Ind.) jumped the gun on today's health reform vote -- and shot himself in the foot.
While Democrats are professing optimism -- but not certainty about the passage of today's bill, the third-ranking man in the House GOP seems to be conceding defeat, seven hours before voting is expected to start.
This, just now, from Pence's website:
PENCE DENOUNCES HOUSE PASSAGE OF PELOSI HEALTH CARE BILL
"This 1,990 page government takeover of health care holds devastating consequences for every family and small business that wants to lower health care costs."
The release has been taken down, but it's worth noting that Pence has already thanked the entire GOP caucus for voting against the bill. So much for debate and deliberation, eh?
A major theme of last night's speeches at Americans for Prosperity's "Defending the American Dream Conference" was, ironically, out-and-out gloating about Chicago's failed bid to host the 2016 Olympics.
Mike Pence was in attendance and had this to add:
Following shortly after Ingraham, Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) got in more political barbs about the loss of the games. "After those first-round results," said Pence, "it looks like the president has had about as much luck pitching Chicago to the Olympics as he had pitching health care reform to the American people."
If a Democratic congressperson said something similar about Dubya, they would have been accused of treason and of being Anti-American. I doubt Michele Bachmann will be asking the media to investigate Pence for being Anti-American.
Oh, and this is an interesting statistic:
Chicago 2016 CEO Patrick Ryan said a poll conducted last week shows 72 percent of Chicagoans back bringing the Games to the city while 84 percent of Americans support the Games.
Local MoveOn activists are hosting a rally in Muncie to encourage the passage of health care reform with a public option. I'm planning on being there. If you're in the area, please come by.
WHERE: Downtown Muncie, 300 N. High Street (Outside City Hall), Muncie, IN 47304
Just found this forwarded message in my inbox. I don't have my own vehicle and the meeting location is not on the bus line, so I won't be able to make it. I hope other's out there will be able to.
I [Mike Pence] will be hosting a town hall meeting Tuesday, August 4th. Please join me at this open forum to discuss current issues in the 111th Congress or to voice your opinion on any issue affecting you or your family.
Tuesday August 4
4:00 - 5:00 PM
Westminster Village
5801 W. Bethel Ave
Muncie, IN 47304
For all the blustery condemnation thrown around whenever the word "earmark" comes up, it is important to remember that behind the moth mating spectacles is a huge body of legislative work that has helped local communities around the country. Gems such as the Indianapolis Children's Museum would simply not exist in their present form without federal funding, and that story is rarely told when the debate over spending projects heats up.
And that's the story local officials are trying to bring up by passing a resolution urging Rep. Mike Pence to abandon his anti-earmark pledge.
In a 6-3 vote, the council passed a non-binding resolution to that effect Monday.
"It's our money going back to the federal government," Democratic council member Sam Marshall said. "Why shouldn't we recoup some of that money?"
The resolution was specifically aimed at convincing Pence to help score federal aid through the transportation bill for local road and street projects.
Is the earmark process flawed? Surely. But Pence voted against reforming the process in 2007, and hasn't appeared all that willing to constructively participate in a discussion, what with such a great opportunity for grandstanding and all.
In a week when the Iranian people, on their own, began protests against their government and the fraudulent election results from their Presidential election June 12th, Rep. Mike Pence defies President Obama, the State Department, foreign policy experts and even the likes of Pat Buchanan to pass a resolution in support of the Iranian people. You would think this would be a good thing, and under normal circumstances such a resolution would be meaningless, but when dealing with Iran, this kind of direct US government meddling is exactly NOT what they need.
I love any and all stories with Rep. Mike Pence in them, because he gives Rep. Mark Souder a run for his money in terms of the consistency by which he embraces the absurd. But even more than that, I love how much Mike Pence really, truly seems to believe that if he can just drag the Republican party that much more to the right, Americans will come running back to the GOP with open arms.
Pence said Democrats were successful in the last election despite the fact most voters aren't overly liberal, because Republicans had strayed from their own beliefs.
"Republicans didn't just lose in a few elections, we lost our way," he said.
His partisan speech included an impression of Margaret Thatcher and a less-than-flattering imitation of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
(Emphasis added, wackiness not.)
I'll just go ahead and let Madame Secretary take this one:
And so it went, up and down the street, in between tents and tables, squeezing past pedestrians to inspect the offerings in one booth after another, we milled around this marketplace in downtown Baghdad for more than an hour. I told reporters afterward that it was just like any open-air market in Indiana in the summertime.
"I think, rightly understood, the cap and trade legislation represents an economic declaration of war on the Midwest by liberals in Washington, D.C.," Pence said in a telephone interview.
Real War = Peace. Energy Independence = War.
Any questions?
And by that, I mean any questions as to why the Republican Party was summarily rejected by the American people last year?
In a letter to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Indiana 6th District Rep. Mike Pence appeals to Sec. Geithner to delay any new bailout money to Chrysler until the auto maker repays money to Tipton County economic development officials.
County officials used millions of taxpayer funds to build infrastructure surrounding the mothballed Gertrag Transmission plant which was closed before it ever opened due to the economic crisis. They now want Chrysler to pay back that money.
TIPTON, Ind. -- An Indiana congressman wants Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to deny more federal loans to Chrysler LLC until it settles a dispute over millions of dollars that Tipton County spent on a transmission plant that a Chrysler supplier stopped building last year.
Republican Rep. Dan Burton, whose 5th District includes Tipton County, said he spoke yesterday with Geithner, a day after sending a letter to the Treasury chief about the situation surrounding the planned $530 million Getrag Transmission Manufacturing plant.
For once in my life, I find myself in the horrible position of actually agreeing with Mike Pence. The circumstances surrounding this entire episode has always stank to me. With the amount of hoop jumping that goes on by small governments like Tipton County to attract new factories like the one abandoned before it opened
it just seems unfair to stick Tipton County taxpayers with the bill and no return on those investments in the form of property tax and other revenues generated by an active factory.
Temperature in hell today: 20 degrees Farenheit and dropping.
A tip o' the hat to Craig for rivaling stAllio in terms of getting efficiency out of short blog posts. Today's target: Rep. Mike "Love Me Some Limbaugh" Pence.
It's really quite amazing. Rush Limbaugh accuses Hillary Clinton of murder and refers to President Obama as a "little black boy"; Mike Pence remains silent. Limbaugh comes under criticism from Democrats and Pence screams "censorship!" It's nice to see that the Congressman is using his publicly funded website to stick up for a racist, sexist, drug-addict.
Earlier today CNN's Rick Sanchez interviewed Eric Burns froim Media Matters to basically tear down all the basic arguments Pence made when he was on the show a mere 24 hours earlier. Hilarity ensues:
Hello there Pencewatch fans! I got a doozy for you today, Mike Pence speaking on CNN agreed with Rush Limbaugh today, wishing for the failure of Obama's policies. Courtesy of Talking Points Memo, here he is in all his moronic glory:
It's never too early to start pontificating on the next election cycle, especially if you make your money, uh, pontificating on the next election cycle. And thus, with little fanfare, the Cook Political Report released their initial race ratings for the 2010 cycle. Indiana is, at least at the moment, a real snoozer.
IN-1 -- Solid D IN-2 -- Likely D IN-3 -- Likely R IN-4 -- Solid R IN-5 -- Solid R IN-6 -- Solid R IN-7 -- Solid D IN-8 -- Solid D IN-9 -- Likely D
The only real things of note here are that Brad Ellsworth is now recognized as beyond mere mortals in an Eighth District that he has quickly made his own, and Baron Hill has effectively consolidated his political strength in the historically tight Ninth District. Oh, and Mark Souder is a really, really lazy campaigner, but somehow keeps winning.
PENCE: I don't believe Rush Limbaugh has a racist bone in his body. If you're suggesting that his statement had a racist element in it, I commend you to a greater understanding of the positions he's taken.
Really now, Rep. Pence? So you don't believe there's a racist bone in the body of the man who:
That man, Rep. Pence, is not a racist in your eyes? If he isn't, Rep. Pence, then who in the Hell is? Are you that ignorant on matters of race, or are you just blinded to it because he's currently the most vocal conservative voice in the country?
I'm going to say what I say every time a story like this comes up: I did not vote for this man. I would never. That this man is so ignorant of even basic, easily-found facts, especially in this age of the ever-present Internet is frightening; that he is an elected official is galling; that he is essentially guaranteed a continual job because of the people in this area who would vote for him is a tragedy.
While communicative genius Mike Pence runs around with his warmed-over John Birch Society talking points, it turns out that the adults in the room have decided to lead by example.
A week after he was sworn in, Obama arrived Tuesday on Capitol Hill to meet privately with all Republicans in Congress.
"I assumed we'd be just pictures on the wall," said Souder, R-3rd. "But he really engaged. ... He showed us he was willing to do a give-and-take."
It's nearly unprecedented for the president of one political party to meet with the entire caucus of lawmakers from the other party, and Republicans said they were grateful for the gesture.
Pence, R-6th, chairman of the GOP House conference and host of the hourlong meeting, said he told Obama, "the door of this conference will stay open to the president."
And yet, something tells me that they won't remember any of this the next time a television camera is rolling and the all-talk socialist rhetoric starts flowing.
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In a letter to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Indiana 6th District Rep. Mike Pence appeals to Sec. Geithner to delay any new bailout money to Chrysler until the auto maker repays money to Tipton County economic development officials.
