Indiana Republicans Begin To Roll Back Mike Pence's Damage
He wouldn't pardon an innocent (black) man, helped cause an uptick in HIV and other STD outbreaks, had his own email scandal and struck a dubious deal with an Ohio communications firm. For starters.
Just a few weeks after Pence left his post as Indiana's Governor, his fellow Republicans in the Hoosier State went to work undoing a few of his not-so-hot policies.
Ironically, his VP bid wasn't the slightest bit adversely affected by his REAL email scandal, but IOKIYAR. Of course the rules don't apply to Republicans. But maybe someday, the truth about Republicans will come to light and we will see the cockroaches scurrying as they lose their power.
The Indy Star Reporter explains:
(Now Governor) Holcomb also pardoned Keith Cooper, who was wrongfully convicted of robbery nearly 20 years ago, and declared a disaster emergency for an East Chicago neighborhood where residents have been forced to relocate because of lead contamination. (GOP seems to have a sordid history of failures to curtail lead levels).
Pence had declined to pardon Cooper before leaving office, insisting that he exhaust his legal options despite resounding evidence of his innocence. Pence's refusal to exonerate the 49-year-old Chicago man came despite a pardon recommendation from the Indiana Parole Board and an online petition urging Pence to clear Cooper's name that had collected more than 100,000 signatures.
Gov. Eric Holcomb, began the day with a news conference where he announced that he was canceling contract negotiations to lease state-owned cell phone towers to an Ohio company. The Pence administration had struck a tentative deal with the company and promised it would cover the cost of more than $50 million in bicentennial construction projects he initiated.
Just like every Republican, Pence sought to privatize the state's communications infrastructure.
Corporate welfare is alive and well in Indiana. Agile Networks, a hybrid wireless provider based in Ohio, secured a deal in Indiana that will allow the company to profit from leasing state government publicly-owned communications towers, fiber, and public rights of way.
Indiana’s deal with Agile would split profits between the state and the company. Then-Gov. Mike Pence promised the Agile contract would “deliver sound financial returns and long-term benefits to Hoosiers.” But, taxpayers can’t verify any of the benefits from the deal. There also isn’t any proof that Agile isn’t just using the agreement with the state to line its pocket. Indiana taxpayers deserve to know.
We mustn't forget the spike in cases of HIV and other STDs since his royal piousness decided to defund the only healthcare available to so many of his fellow Hoosiers: Planned Parenthood. Staggering statistics show how awful Pence and like-minded sanctimonious Republicans' irresponsible cuts to healthcare funding would be for America.
Pence first laid the groundwork for Indiana’s HIV outbreak as a congressman back in 2011, when the House passed his amendment to defund Planned Parenthood. Then in 2013, Pence’s first year as governor of Indiana, Scott County’s one Planned Parenthood closed in the wake of public health spending cuts. Since that particular Planned Parenthood was also the county’s only HIV testing center, there was no longer a place for the county’s 24,000 residents to get tested.
Nearly 20 percent of Scott County residents live below the poverty line. Injection drug use there is a major problem, increasing the risk of HIV outbreak.
His email scandal is actually not a bogus construct of Jason Chaffetz-type Republicans. It's the real deal:
An attorney has petitioned the Indiana Supreme Court to take up his case against Vice President Mike Pence in hopes that the court will reveal the contents of a political white paper the former governor has fought to keep secret for nearly three years.
If successful, the communications could reveal a slew of Republican political strategies that Pence and dozens of other U.S. governors devised against former President Barack Obama and an executive order issued on immigration during his time as president.
Let's hope we can fix our own Executive Branch as it appears that Trump and his VP have committed crimes and offenses that would rival the corruption depicted in Goodfellas.