Are we destined for “President Pence?” Should that scare us more than Trump?

Spending time as I do working as a reporter-type person on the other side of State Line Road, I have found a group of Democrats to whom the concept of the upcoming presidency of Donald J. Trump is not the most terrifying thought.
 

PENCE: From Indiana to U.S.A., could it happen?

For them to really get a jolt of fear down their political spines, it is the thought of “President Michael R. Pence,” their state’s former governor, ascending to the top post of the United States government.

PENCE GAINED HIS national infamy back when Indiana gave us a version of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act that went so far over the top, even the conservative elements that govern the Hoosier State (which is truly a Bizarro-world take on what we have here in Illinois) felt compelled to scale it back.

But it was the measure that would have put the law on the side of those people who wanted to cite their religious beliefs as the reason to discriminate against people who weren’t like themselves.

Particularly when it comes to those who differ based on sexual orientation issues. But it gave Pence a national reputation – one that helped bolster Trump’s chances of getting elected back when the conservative ideologues weren’t sure if they could trust the rich to be president.

Now, Trump is the president-elect, and Pence moves up to the position of being one step down from becoming U.S. president – should something happen that would prevent Trump from being capable of finishing his term.

WHICH IN THIS political environment may well be a real concept – and just because at age 70, Trump is one of the oldest men ever elected president of this country.

There are those who speculate how unlikely it is that Trump will finish out the four years of the term to which he was elected last month and which will begin in January.

Of course, there are different reasons for their speculations.

 

TRUMP: Will he finish what he starts?

Some believe Trump is just too much of a political amateur to realize what he has got himself into, and will either become frustrated or bored when he finally realizes that image of himself as being the guy who bellows “You’re Fired!” at everybody who displeases him just doesn’t work in government.

HE COULD EASILY turn out to be like Sarah Palin – whose government credentials prior to her 2008 vice presidential bid were being governor of Alaska. But she didn’t even finish out that one term – making it only about two years into it before using her newfound VP nominee status to justify moving on to more visible ventures.

Which in her case amount to being a political loudmouth who spews her thoughts to whomever will listen (and usually winds up giving the real majority of us a good laugh).

Would Trump quit when he realizes life in the White House and on Air Force One isn’t garish and gaudy enough to live up to his tastes?

Or there’s the more extreme option – one that says Trump will do something severe enough to warrant his impeachment. I can’t envision what it would be, but anything is possible in this unpredictable political climate.

I COULD ENVISION a scenario in which his alleged Republican allies, some of whom were never thrilled with his presence instead of a more-reliable GOPer, turn on him. Or it could be the ideologues who banded together to give him that likely Electoral College victory next week decide that he’s not keeping his word to impose all those tyrannical measures that Trump talked about during his campaign that THEY TRULY DESIRE!

 

CLINTON: We can only dream of her presidency

Saying he’s not likely to move to prosecute one-time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton like he said he would during the campaign is a serious broken promise – along the lines of “Read my lips, no new taxes” is to more rational people when discussing the legacy of the first President George Bush.

I state it in that sarcastic manner because on a serious level, the only “crime” that Clinton committed was having the unmitigated gall to think she had any right to seek the presidency in the first place.

People who think like that could easily turn on their guy, particularly if they think they have a more stable and reliable conservative voice in place in the form of Pence – of which the thought of him in the Oval Office does give shudders down the back of the progressive majority peeved that the Electoral College didn’t reflect their reality in this particular election cycle.

  -30-

So much for the dream of “Gov. Schock,” which withered away more quickly than ‘Mayor Jackson’

I was as stunned as anyone could be when I learned Tuesday that Aaron Schock had chosen to give up his seat in Congress representing Peoria and other parts of central Illinois.

Of course, I had read the many stories that had cropped up about such offenses as having his Congressional office redecorated in an overly nancy-boy manner and about the trips to New York by he and his staff that were supposedly paid for out of government accounts.

IT ALL STRUCK me as too trivial to think of in a way that would warrant federal investigators to come in and contemplate criminal charges. More like the kind of material that would lead to snickering about Schock behind his back.

But now there is speculation by some people (most of whom are determined to believe the worst) about whether there is some other potential crisis that could crop up – something so severe that he would want to get out now.

Which may be why Schock chose Tuesday to resign his congressional post – likely bringing to an end any political aspirations he (or others) might have had for him.

Those people who figured he’d someday be the Republican nominee for governor of Illinois? It probably ain’t gonna happen now.

SO MUCH FOR the man who, at age 33, already had served six years in the House of Representatives, along with a stretch previously in the Illinois House of Representatives.

That legislative post was something he got elected to at age 23, after also having served on a high school board of education in Peoria prior to that.

The fact that Schock got such an early start in electoral politics (people in their late 30s to early 40s are more typical of first-time office holders) is why some people thought he was destined to be a future governor. By the time he would be ready age-wise to run for such a post, he’d have so much in the way of government experience.

He’d have quite the political resume!

INSTEAD, BY THE time he hits his early 50s (which was about the age Rahm Emanuel was at when he was elected mayor, while new Gov. Bruce Rauner is 58), Schock is likely to be a long-forgotten pol, perhaps remembered like some choose to remember Carol Moseley-Braun!

Maybe we’ll remember that Downton Abbey-inspired congressional office and think it was some sort of political joke?

It may well be that starting out too early in electoral politics can turn out to be a negative – it certainly didn’t turn out to be a plus for Jesse Jackson, Jr.

The civil rights activist’s son got elected to Congress at age 30 and represented that far South Side/suburban district for 17 years. He had all the speculation that he would someday try to become mayor, or perhaps a U.S. senator. Remember the speculation that he tried to “buy” the post from then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich when Barack Obama became president?

NOW I’M NOT claiming Schock did anything that ought to be regarded as illegal. Just pointing out that the political downfall of Jackson (who turned 50 last Wednesday while still serving a federal prison term) is what came to mind when I heard about Schock.

Yet another pol destined for great things whose actual career will wind up falling far short of what was expected. They flamed out before they could achieve the ultimate political goal.

Which makes me wonder if perhaps the ultimate young pol is someone like Tom Dart, the Cook County sheriff. As a reporter-type person, I have known Dart since he was an assistant state’s attorney at the Cook County courthouse in suburban Markham.

He then went to the state Legislature at age 29, where he served for 12 years before coming back home. There was an unsuccessful bid for state treasurer and his contemplation of running for mayor back in 2011 – although he has been sheriff since 2006.

MAYBE SOMEDAY HE’LL shoot for that top political post; probably if Emanuel were to actually be knocked out and he could run in ’19 against a ‘Mayor Garcia.’

Or maybe his personal restraint on political ambition could be what keeps him from doing something in the future that would cause him to whither away and die like Schock and Jackson did?

  -30-

EDITOR’S NOTE: I want to know what becomes of the Aaron Schock congressional office once he steps down March 31 – and how quickly will the future occupant go out of his/her way to redecorate it into some drab, dreary space that truly reflects the government bureaucratic mentality?

Does Trot mean more than Richard? Is Milhous merely a Simpsons character?

It has been 40 years since the date that Richard M. Nixon became the only U.S. president to voluntarily leave office – resigning the term that should have run through January 1977 so as to reduce the chance of criminal prosecution.

Because for those whose memories are too short (or who believe nothing occurred prior to Bill Clinton), the mood of the nation toward “Watergate” was ugly enough that Nixon likely would have been impeached by the House of Representatives, then convicted by the Senate.

HE BEAT THE partisans who were out for blood (and who would have loved nothing more than the sight of Nixon serving time in a federal correctional facility), then was spared the possibility of prosecution when – a month later – he was pardoned for anything he might have done by his successor.

But the passage of time, along with the ideologue atmosphere we now live in, makes me wonder if anybody comprehends what we went through back then.

I’ll be the first to admit not fully understanding the happenings back when they occurred. Although I was only 8 years old (6 back when the actual burglary at the Watergate building in Washington actually occurred).

My memory of 40 years ago today was the encyclopedia salesman who showed up at our home that night and made his pitch to my parents – with one of his selling points being that the book was so up-to-date that it included mention of Gerald R. Ford as our new president – which actually didn’t occur until the following day.

I ALSO HAVE memories of going to college (mid-1980s) with people who considered themselves politically-aware who were taught that the whole “Watergate” affair was little more than a plot by “liberals” to discredit a worthy president – with the actual actions not amounting to much!

Since then, we have had many more generations of young people come along. I wonder how many of them think of Cynthia (“Miranda” from “Sex and the City”) or Trot (of the Boston Red Sox) first when they hear the name “Nixon.”

And as for “Milhous,” wasn’t that Bart Simpson’s animated friend?

I wonder how many people are reading all the 40-year anniversary pieces about Nixon’s resignation and are viewing it as more evidence of old farts who can’t move on with their lives. Perhaps they think a real story with lingering interest is whether or not Tupac Shakur is really dead?

IF THEY THINK of Gordon Liddy at all, he’s that bald guy who goes around saying things like President Barack Obama is an “illegal alien born in Kenya” (he really said that on MSNBC). Not as the one-time FBI agent who wound up doing the most prison time of anyone for his Watergate involvement.

The simple fact is that “Watergate” (as in the burglary and attempt to install an illegal wiretap at the Democratic National Headquarters located back then in the Watergate building in southwestern D.C.) was a stupid incident that should have been a one-day story – if not for the fact that the Nixon administration’s reaction to the embarrassment they would have felt for being involved in such an act was to plot the cover-up – with the president personally getting involved.

It created an administration that believed it could break the law for its own benefit.

For those who go about these days screeching “Impeachment” in connection with Obama and who rant about his talk of executive orders to get certain things done (seriously, I have a distant cousin who at a recent family gathering couldn’t shut up about all the “illegal executive orders” that Obama was allegedly issuing), it’s not even close.

NOT JUST BECAUSE the Obama talk is a reaction to the refusal of Republican partisans in Congress to do anything. The difference between wanting to admit refugee children from Latin American nations into the United States and wanting illegal wiretaps so as to listen in on the political opposition is just so grand.

As for Nixon himself, I’ll be the first to concede great actions such as the normalization of relations with China and creation of federal regulations in areas such as the environment – actions that the ideologues would love to dismantle, if given the chance.

But he’s also the man whose “Southern Strategy” of the 1968 campaign cycle (so soon after the Civil Rights Act of 1964) made it clear that some political people were more than willing to work with the segregationists of old.

And as for the break-in that resulted in Nixon’s televised resignation speech 40 years ago today (Chicago Cubs fans probably think it more important that 26 years ago, they tried to play the first night game at Wrigley Field, only to have it cancelled due to inclement weather), the pettiness of the act shows that the nation probably did need to get beyond the “Nixon years” sooner, rather than later.

  -30-