<![CDATA[Mike Pence]]>

Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson Waxes Idiotic About Mike Pence: ‘One Notch Short of Stoning Gays’

September 18, 2023 by Mike Miller Leave a Comment

In this episode of “The Best Thing Lincoln Project Fools Have Going for Them Is Their Willingness to Humiliate Themselves”…

Before we begin, I’m fully aware that the mere mention of former Vice President Mike Pence’s name causes a visceral reaction in some people — either because of his certification of the 2020 presidential election or because his staunch Christian agenda perhaps makes him unelectable — but here’s the thing:

The article isn’t about Pence; it’s about Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson.

Anyway, during an appearance on MSNBC host Katie Phang’s show on Sunday, Wilson declared — with a straight face, no less — that “Mike Pence is one notch short of stoning gays.”

Did I mention that Wilson presented zero evidence to back his ridiculous claim? Or that Phang didn’t bother to ask him for relevant examples?

An animated Phang giddily kicked off the festivities:

During a campaign stop in Iowa last Tuesday, here’s what one voter had to say about Pence’s Christian agenda.

Phang then played a clip of a heckler blasting Pence:

Mike Pence, nobody wants your Christian fascist bull*** anymore. Leave, and get the f*** out of our country, and get the f*** out of Iowa.

Pence handled the attack with grace: “I’ll put him down as a maybe.” Phang, on the other hand, did not. Again, she giddily tore into the former vice president.

Ah, bless his heart. Rick Wilson, co-founder of the Lincoln Project, Republican media strategist, and the author of Running Against the Devil, joins us now for our latest installment of, ‘I’m Just Not That Into You, Either.’
Rick, as you heard in that soundbite, a Republican voter telling Mike Pence, we don’t want your Christian fascist BS. So, why is America just not that into Pence?

Multiple reasons, Katie, which I won’t relitigate, here. None of which, in my opinion, are warranted.

Wilson, of course, was raring to launch into a ridiculous mini-fit against Pence. Here are several excerpts:

Look, if you want to look at other Republican governors and leaders who are both in the party, in this contest, and outside of it, they are now going to dismantle gay marriage with Obergefell. They’re gonna challenge, they’re gonna start rolling back birth control. These people always tell you what they will do, and they’re moving forward on it.
And they don’t need Mike Pence to sort of couch it in the sort of piety of the past. They don’t need Mike Pence to pretend to be this kind of avuncular conservative guy, who just wants the best for babies. Because he doesn’t. This is a man whose time has passed. This is a man who believes in nothing.
[…]
And look, Mike Pence was always a failure. The guy failed up over and over again. He was a terrible congressman. In his first campaign, he got caught paying his own mortgage out of his campaign funds. He became a failed radio talk show host.
But he had a certain niche inside the old party of being the so-con [social conservative] guy who was always gonna be able to go out further to the right than anybody else.
I mean, Mike Pence is one, is one notch short of stoning gays, in his, in his position in social conservative matters. And so, I worry that anybody gives the guy the time of day.

The “humorous” duo closed out the segment with a couple of “funny” jabs at Pence that weren’t funny, at all, and said far more about Phang and Wilson than Mike Pence.

So again, this article isn’t about Pence and whether he stands a chance to win the Republican nomination; it’s about the deranged lies and personal attacks from people like Rick Wilson and Katie Phang.

The late brilliant columnist Charles Krauthammer said it best: “Conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals think conservatives are evil.”

With respect to Mike Pence, vs. Rick Wilson and Katie Phang, Dr. Krauthammer was spot on.

The Bottom Line

As a constitutional conservative, I expect neither fairness nor decency from the left — including from discredited fools like the Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson, who laughingly attempts to hide behind his faux conservatism mask while attacking true conservatives.

If liberals didn’t invent the politics of personal destruction, they sure as hell perfected it.

Mike Pence Takes Trump to Task Over Foreign Policy: ‘Talking the Language of Appeasement’

September 18, 2023 by Jeff Charles Leave a Comment

Former Vice President Mike Pence recently criticized former President Donald Trump over his foreign policy stances, particularly when it comes to the war in Ukraine. His comments come as Ukraine mounted a major offensive on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, destroying one of its landing ships and a submarine.

During a Sunday interview, Pence discussed a wide range of topics, including House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, election integrity, and his former boss. Fox News host Howard Kurtz asked the former vice president about his previous comments about Trump, arguing that the former president “is offering…a siren song of populism, unmoored from true conservatism.”

Pence first responded by touting the Trump administration’s conservative record.

When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, he promised to govern as a conservative. For four years, we governed as Conservatives. We rebuilt our military. We stood strong on the world stage. We exercised that American leadership, we stood with our allies, stood up to our enemies. Our military took down the ISIS Caliphate. We stood with Israel as never before. We took out- You’ve got a long list. -Qasem Soleimani. Here at home, we cut taxes, we rolled back regulations, and we appointed Conservatives to our courts at every level, including three of the justices that sent Roe versus Wade to the ash heap of history. We governed as Conservatives.

The former vice president continued, noting that Trump “makes no such promise today” and accused him of “backing away from America as leader of the free world, talking the language of appeasement in the face of Russian aggression in Eastern Europe and the war raging in Ukraine.”

Pence also said Trump’s position on entitlements is “identical to Joe Biden’s” and pointed out that neither “want to talk about…cutting Medicare, reforming programs that are driving our national debt.”

He went on to discuss Trump’s comments on the midterm elections, asserting that his focus on the outcome of the 2020 presidential election was the reason why Republicans did not win as widely as they could have.

Donald Trump actually blamed losses in the midterm elections on us overturning Roe versus Wade. When I look at the midterm elections, it was candidates that were focused on the future did very well. Candidates who were focused on the past and many candidates he endorsed were relitigating the last election, did not fare well, including in states that we should have done well. Honestly, I take a different view of 2022 than my former running mate does, and I think the facts speak for themselves.

He added: “I think by complaining about the last election or complaining about people that don’t see that last presidential election in the same way he did or the Constitution in the same way, we’re going to be focused on each other when we should be focused outward.”

So far, Pence’s campaign has struggled to gain ground in the polling. The latest RealClearPolitics average has the former vice president at 4.5 percent support, which places him behind Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Ron DeSantis, and Trump. In a recent YouGov/Economist poll, 47 percent of Republican respondents indicated they would be disappointed to have Pence as the GOP nominee. Only Chris Christie ranked higher with 52 percent.

Chris Murphy actually got something right for once

August 30, 2023 by Tom Knighton Leave a Comment

Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy usually doesn’t get much of anything right when it comes to politics. I’ve disagreed with him on just about everything he’s ever opened his mouth on.

Yet despite that, I’ve always believed that I’ll acknowledge anyone who gets something right, even if I disagree with them on everything else, and Murphy actually got something right.

What’s more, it’s something that’s part of the gun debate, surprisingly enough.

No, Murphy didn’t suddenly show some appreciation for the right to keep and bear arms. Instead, he simply took issue with something former Vice President Mike Pence said.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) criticized former Vice President Mike Pence’s proposal to give arrested mass shooters the death penalty, saying the remarks show his ignorance on the topic.
The proposal “shows how little Mike Pence understands about the gun violence epidemic in this country,” Murphy said in a CBS interview on Tuesday.
“Fact is, most mass shooters are engaged in a suicide attempt,” he continued. “Mike Pence doesn’t know what he’s talking about when he says that he thinks mass shootings will go down if you threaten to kill the people who are carrying them out. They are, in fact, seeking to die.”
Murphy is one of the Senate’s most vocal gun control advocates. He has also led bipartisan attempts to pass gun control legislation in the Senate.
He said that aims to curb mass shootings should not be focused on punishment, but on prevention.

Now, when it comes to what prevention actually means, Murphy and I diverge significantly, but he’s right about Pence’s suggestion. I also think deterrence can be a good thing, but it can’t be penalties in the sentencing phase, but armed resistance at the scene. That’s something Murphy isn’t going to agree with me on.

The death penalty only works as a deterrent if people are both afraid of it and believe there’s a likelihood they’ll be caught and face it.

With mass shooters, they’re not exactly afraid of dying. I mean, most of them actually intend to die at the scene, they just want to take a lot of people with them in the process. As such, the death penalty isn’t likely to do all that much.

It’s also not like states don’t already have the death penalty. Many already do, especially for things like premeditated murder. I’m pretty sure a mass shooting falls under the heading of “premeditated,” yet they still happen.

Take Jacksonville, as an example.

Florida has the death penalty. It’s had it for years. That didn’t deter the shooter in Jacksonville in the least.

So there’s reason to believe that Murphy is, in fact, right about the death penalty having no impact as a mass shooting deterrent.

I get where Pence is coming from, but it’s not likely to accomplish a damn thing except sitting well with the base during primary season.

Unfortunately, mass shootings require real solutions. Just as gun control is no answer, I’m afraid the death penalty for people who want to die anyway isn’t an answer either.

Murphy got this right, but don’t get excited. Blind squirrels occasionally find nuts, after all.