Tornado Alley (PROG)

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Mike Pence is hitting the campaign trail, perhaps with an eye on a Trumpless White House

By Hunter
Wednesday May 31, 2017 · 6:31 PM CST

Vice President and guy who always swears he was out of the room when everyone else on the president's senior team did all those things the FBI is now investigating Mike Pence is, four months or so after being sworn in, already heading back to the campaign trail. This may have something to do with Republican leaders being increasingly concerned that Tire Fire '18 is not, in fact, a winning ticket to keeping control of the House.
Or it might be that Pence has been picking out new drapes for the Oval Office. [ http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/30/mike-pence-campaign-push-trump-gop-238921 ]

[T]he vice president’s increased electoral activity has stoked speculation that Pence is positioning himself for a post-Trump future in the party, something his advisers strenuously deny.

Pence has already formed a political action committee, the Great America Committee, enabling him to raise money for candidates who need help in 2018, an unusual move for a sitting vice president. And his upcoming effort to strengthen ties to the party’s rank and file and connect with key donors is likely to fuel the perception that Pence wants to fortify his position atop the party independent of his relationship to President Donald Trump.

That presumes, of course, that Mike Pence himself survives the Trump team downfall. As the person who was in charge of vetting ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn, only to later profess to be downright surprised at the revelations of shady dealings that he had been warned about in writing, he may presume too much.

[T]he early intensity of Pence’s tour underscores the sudden urgency confronting Republicans. With Trump’s campaign under federal investigation, his approval ratings at record lows, and his agenda badly stalled, once-despondent Democrats have been jolted back to life — and are waging a serious bid to seize control of the House.

The first three phrases there are more significant than the fourth. Being under federal investigation and having sub-Nixon approval ratings and an "agenda" so unpopular that even the worst Republican Congress in a half-century is looking at it like something the dog deposited on the living room rug are, indeed, fine ways to lose an election regardless of what the opposition does.

In any event, Mike Pence is headed for Iowa. And Georgia. And appears to be the stand-in for Republican donors and groups who can't stomach being associated with the idiot man-child himself but are perfectly happy to shell out cash for the Trump agenda, no matter how unpopular it may be. Somebody's got to make sure impoverished children aren't getting food on the government dime, after all.

Although Republicans hope that Pence fills what has been a frustrating political void, his advisers are contending with talk that the vice president is looking to build his own operation or angling for a future run — speculation that is bound to intensify with his trip next week to Iowa.

Nothing could be further from the truth, says the Pence team, [...]

Which would be a truly important statement if Mike Pence's team hadn't been caught in just as many lies as the rest of Team Tire Fire. So let's just bask in that a little, because even speculation that Mike Pence is trying to inflate his own brand in anticipation of a Trump crash would absolutely infuriate the forever-twitchy Donald. He's making a move, Donny. Look out for that Pence guy, he's trouble.

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/5/31/1667384/-Mike-Pence-is-hitting-the-campaign-trail-perhaps-with-an-eye-on-a-Trumpless-White-House