Keep Your Eyes on Pence

This is an interesting passage bured deep in Elaina Plott's piece for the Atlantic on Mike Pence's futile role in trying to end the shutdown:

White House allies on the Hill and former administration officials acknowledged privately that the vice president may be more hamstrung than ever, unable to capitalize on many of the strengths he was originally chosen for. But crucially, those sources said, Pence has never expressed any displeasure with his circumstances, and would never suggest, even privately they say, that Trump's whims have made shuttle diplomacy difficult. "There's a reason Pence has avoided the fate of so many others," another former senior White House official told me. "He acquiesces entirely to the will of Trump 100 percent of the time."

Of course he does. Because the most determined authoritarians ferociously respect authority.

Just yesterday, in an exchange about Pence on Twitter, I wrote: "People who most fervently believe in obedience to authority usually want quite desperately to BE the authority. And those are the ones most cruel when they get it."

People wildly misunderstand Pence when they mistake his fealty for weakness. He is not a lapdog. He is a snake, waiting to strike, and the rock under which he hovers for protection is the power he hopes to seize for himself someday.