Palookaville.

Michael Pence coulda had class. He coulda been a contender! He coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what he is, let's face it.

My headline rephrases those lines from the anguished Terry in On the Waterfront. Mike Pence had a rendezvous with history and he didn't show up. Pence could have been a contender.

Michael Pence was an eyewitness. He could have leveraged his testimony into a new brand for himself. He would no longer be white-bread Second Banana. He could be Mr. Integrity, the voice of the New GOP.  Instead, he was silent when it mattered, and now he is playing peek-a-boo. He knows a secret, but won't tell. He tells reporters that he witnessed something shameful, but he won't testify about it.  

Pence wants the impossible. He wants the Republican nomination for president in 2024. He wants credit for being a good, loyal Republican and part of the Trump-Pence administration. Now he also says Trump was wrong. He wants it both ways. Perhaps Republicans will give him extra credit for loyalty because even though he could rat out Trump with testimony under oath, he refuses. 

Pence has an un-fixable problem. He wasn't a loyal Republican. A loyal Republican would have found a pretext to keep Trump in office. That is how Trump defines being a loyal Republican. Activists in the party fell into line and so did its leadership. 

Too little. Too late. 

There was a brief period in the aftermath of January 6 when GOP leaders might have changed the direction of the party. They could have openly said that Trump was wrong, that the insurrection was wrong, that Trump was the outlier, and they were rid of him. Many GOP leaders did say it, but then they backed off. A new GOP could have emerged: "Trump-ism without Trump, because the GOP won't stand for insurrection." 

In that world, Pence would have been a potential successor. He would have been Mr. Strong, the man in the arena who put the brakes on Trump. He could have been Mr. Integrity, the real Christian. Voters can swing that way after a president does something openly corrupt. Jimmy Carter got elected in the aftermath of Watergate. Carter was Mr. Clean, a born-again Christian who taught Sunday School and was faithful to his wife. Mike Pence had a shot.

In the aftermath of Watergate, White House aides Bob Haldeman, John Erlichman, Charles Colson, and many others went to prison. The GOP willingly cleaned itself up. In 2021 the GOP project could have been to show they supported the rule of law, norms, and patriotic tradition. They are, after all, the conservative party. They could have condemned the insurrection, Trump's failure to attend the Biden inauguration, and Trump's refusal to aid the presidential transition. They could have de-Trumped the party. That didn't happen.

Mike Pence could have spoken out forcefully in the days after January 6. Trump's crowd threatened the republic. The insurrection threatened him. It threatened his wife. It was on TV! Even Fox was appalled. He had media cover. He had done the right thing while rivals like Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley were cheering the mob. Pence had a path.

He didn't take it. He kept mum. He let the GOP re-embrace Trump. So now he wants to be half-loyal to the Constitution by saying he did his duty, and half-loyal to Trump by saying he did that duty reluctantly, because he had no other choice, and moreover he is protecting Trump by keeping his secrets. He is Mr. In-Between.

Halfway is nowhere. It's Palookaville.

Terry: "He gets a title shot outdoors in a ballpark, and what do I get? A one-way ticket to Palookaville."

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