President Pence's first two decisions

Sandy Levinson

Imagine for the moment that Donald J. Trump exits the White House.  There are, of course, four possibilities:  Death, resignation, impeachment, or the invocation of the 25th Amendment.  Should the first occur, then perhaps I should change the subject line to President Pence's first decision.  Otherwise, the subject line holds.

So what are these decisions?  The first involves his use of the Pardon Power, though it is altogether likely that our sociopathic president will be more than happy, just before he exits, to issue a general pardon beginning with Michael Flynn, and ending, perhaps, with Trump himself.  Should that occur, then Pence would presumably have little occasion to consider the fate of Gerald Ford and the costs of a potential pardon of Donald J. Trump or, say, Jared Kushner, for their various flouting of American law.  Otherwise, that will surely be something he will have to consider.  Even if Trump himself is no longer alive to receive a pardon, one has the strong suspicion that other Trumpettes, some of them facing financial ruin because of having to hire private counsel to fend off Mr. Mueller, will be in dire need of get-out-of-jail cards of the type provided by George H.W. Bush as part of the Christmas orgy of pardons before he left the presidency in 1993.  Whatever one thinks of Bill Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich (sleazy at best), it doesn't compare to Bush's use of his pardon power basically to shut down the special prosecutor looking into the various actions involving Iran and Nicaragua, some of which implicated then-Vice President Bush himself.


But then President Pence has to make his second, surely more important decision, to nominate a new Vice President, as required by the 25th Amendment.  Gerald Ford, to his immense credit, picked someone thoroughly competent to serve as President if necessary--Nelson Rockefeller.  We could debate at length whether the same was true of Richard Nixon's selection of Gerald Ford.  Was that viewed as "impeachment insurance" or an act of unanticipated Nixonian statesmanship?  One might well say that Ford rose to the occasion, as signified by his selection of Rockefeller.  Ford was free of the various neuroses that we have come to expect in the monomaniacs who run for the Oval Office.  A more neurotic president would not have picked someone like Rockefeller, whose achievements clearly outshone Ford's (though of course he unceremoniously dumped Rockefeller in 1976 in favor of the egregious Robert Dole, who had certainly not yet become the beloved elder statesman (who, nonetheless, supported Donald J. Trump).  .

So what will Pence, who is stunningly lacking in any genuine achievement save his repeated invocation that his three primary loyalties are to Christianity, conservatism, and the Republican Party (in that order) and an unrelenting attack on non-straights and any women who believe they should be able to exercise control over their own bodies, choose to do when he takes over and gives a speech about the necessity of healing our divided nation?  Will he, like Ford (or perhaps even Nixon) try to pick "a uniter and not a divider," including one of the admirable Republicans like John Kasich who  refused to drink the Trump Kool-aid, or will he pander to the "deplorables" and double down with someone from the Freedom Caucus?

We know that Mr. Pence is already thinking of his independent campaign in 2020, having registered his domain name.  I suspect that he doesn't really expect to be the running mate for Trump's second term.  In any event, I wonder if, like the Mikado, he is compiling a "little list" either or people he'd never miss (Steve Bannon, Jared Kushner, etc.) or of those he'd see as plausible vice presidents because they would not immediate overshadow him and make people yearn for yet another succession.  Or perhaps the House would refuse to confirm anyone selected by Pence, secure in the knowledge that that would make Paul Ryan the successor should anything unfortunate happen to the hapless Hoosier.  Just thinking aloud....   We really ought to be prepared for anything and everything happening in the next while, given the possibilities allowed by our Constitution.  .

I'd be particularly interested in whom the hard-core conservatives who like to comment would prefer as Pence's VP. 
Posted 6:19 PM by Sandy Levinson [link]