Of all the characters and assorted reprobates who answer to the Reprobate in Chief, Donald Trump, the one who astounds me the most daily is Mike Pence, the vice president of the United States.

It’s getting to where I cannot listen to the vice president speak to the nation while standing just a few feet from Donald Trump.

Why? The VPOTUS is the most obsequious individual ever to occupy the office that is next in line to the Big Job.

It’s not enough for Pence, I guess, to listen to Trump heap praise on himself, calling himself the most consequential president in human history, taking credit for things he never has done. Oh, no. Pence has to pour it on. He stands there in front of the nation and the world and continually slathers the president with fawning praise.

I get that VPs are required to be loyal to the individual who asks him or her to run with them. It’s just that when Pence speaks of Donald Trump, he sounds so shallow, so callow, so hollow. 

I keep reminding myself that Pence bills himself as a devout Christian, a man of deep and abiding religious faith. He won’t meet in the same room with women who aren’t his wife. He has told us that his faith guides his public service.

But how in the world does this individual continue to slobber all over a president who is the very antithesis of the beliefs for which Pence believes? Donald Trump has admitted to never seeking forgiveness. He never exhibits an ounce of grace. Yet there is the vice president, continually telling us about the “outstanding leadership” that Donald Trump has shown, particularly during the current pandemic that is scaring the daylights out of millions of Americans.

All the policy initiatives that Pence supposedly is leading? It’s not enough for him merely to report on them. Heavens no. He has to tell us over and over again how much Donald Trump cares for us all, how he “puts Americans’ interests first.” No! He doesn’t!

I can’t listen to this baloney.