Tom LoBianco asks all the right questions in Piety & Power, his crisp and engaging biography of the vice president, but the answers remain elusive. As a reporter in Indiana, LoBianco covered Pences rise for The Associated Press and Indianapolis Star. He tells us of a boy from a plain Midwestern upbringing who explored the intersection of faith and politics and became a radio host, congressman and governor. But LoBianco is left along with the rest of us to wonder at the interior life that Pence guards so zealously
One clue may be his wife, Karen, known to the public mainly because the vice president refuses to meet alone with women other than her. Her influence seems significant. The cherry-red telephone on his desk as governor was a direct line to Karen, who maintained an office across the statehouse atrium but preferred phone conversations to avoid prying eyes. Karen, LoBianco reports, was livid at Trumps prurient comments in the Access Hollywood tape, but her husband concluded it was too late to drop off the ticket. On election night, 2016, Karen refused to kiss Pence. You got what you wanted, Mike, she told him. Leave me alone.
What he really wants is what almost every vice president wants to be president. He hoped to run in 2016 and in fact even former President George W. Bush sent a message through intermediaries urging him to please stop Trump and save the Republican Party. Instead, he joined Trump selected, LoBianco concludes, because Trump figured the dry and ponderous Pence would not compete for airtime.
Apparently, Pence assumed that Trump would not run again in 2020, clearing the way for him. Now he is committed to waiting another four years until 2024, unless impeachment leads to an earlier exit by the president. Either way, he is linked inextricably to Trump as the nation studies the vice president to understand who he really is. For now, at least, he is not saying, and we are left to make what we can of the small clues.
When an evangelical pastor who once prayed with Pence in his congressional office ran into him at a ceremony last year, he told him: You know, Mr. Vice President, more than anything, we need you to find your conscience, the country desperately needs you to find your conscience.
Its always easier said than done, Pence replied cryptically, and then walked away.