Republican Congressman and former radio talk show host Mike Pence is ramping up his campaign to be Indiana's next governor, but this probably isn't the kind of statement his communications team wanted to make:
Pence's campaign manager would not comment on Pence's belief that Indiana is on the verge of totalitarianism, but said Indiana's future is at a crossroads.
The Times of Northwest Indiana election blog reports that in a fundraising email, Pence trotted out a trite line from a speech Reagan gave in 1964:
In his email, Pence quotes former President Ronald Reagan, who said politics is not about choosing right or left but up or down: "Up to man's age-old dream -- the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order -- or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism.""That's the choice Indiana faces today," Pence said.
Indiana Democrats pounced on Pence's statement, saying that it demonstrated that Pence was "a very divisive, ideological Congressman." Indiana Democratic Party chairman Dan Parker responded that "Pence routinely resorts to such hyperbole because 'actions speak louder than words, and the problem for Mike Pence is he doesn't have a record of actually doing anything.'"
Parker has a point. According to GovTrack.us, "Mike Pence has sponsored 62 bills since Jan 3, 2001 of which 59 haven't made it out of committee and none were successfully enacted." The bills Pence has introduced the last session are about abortion, the "Fairness Doctrine", and repealing the estate tax.
