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The political scene in Indiana has sunk to a new level—standup comedy.
Attorney General Todd Rokita took a victory lap after vilifying Dr. Caitlin Bernard, a courageous obstetrician and gynecologist who performed a legal abortion on a 10-year-old rape victim.
He now has a new routine.
Remember the comedy “Back to School?” Rodney Dangerfield plays an uneducated, self-made millionaire who enrolls in college. He brags to his fellow students, “The football team at my high school, they were tough. After they sacked the quarterback, they went after his family.”
Rokita, taking a cue from Dangerfield, has asked the federal government to allow his office to obtain medical records of patients legally seeking out-of-state abortion care so he can “go after” them without regard to the privacy of their health information. While you are laughing at the absurdity of this harassment of Hoosier citizens, note Rokita’s police-state mentality has already manifested itself in his attempt to intimidate Target from marketing products he finds offensive, clearly revealing his sexual-orientation bias.
Indiana’s favorite son, presidential candidate Mike Pence, declared that abortion should be banned even when a pregnancy is not viable. That’s a great one-liner. But wait, Pence is serious. His only rationalization is, “I am pro-life.” Mr. Pence, there’s no life there! You are definitely not “pro” the mother’s life because you would force her to undergo a potentially dangerous pregnancy with no upside. Wouldn’t a sane pro-life stance be to allow a woman to terminate a non-productive pregnancy and move on to create a healthy baby?
Pence’s stance is so beyond the pale that even our best comedy writers couldn’t make this stuff up. That’s really not funny. It’s cruel. Mr. Pence, in your quest to be elected president, here is a little factoid you probably don’t know: The 19th Amendment guarantees American women the right to vote. Try winning a presidential election without them.
There is a joke about comparing our ex-governor Mitch Daniels with the ex-governors of the state of Illinois: Mitch Daniels, when president of Purdue University, was busy making education more affordable for Indiana students, while ex-governors of Illinois were busy making license plates.
That’s funny, but this is funnier: Curtis Hill announced his candidacy for governor giving Illinois the last laugh. When he was attorney general, Hill’s law license was suspended for 30 days by the Indiana Supreme Court after it found that his actions against three female legislative staffers and a state lawmaker at a bar in 2018 rose to the level of misdemeanor battery. He had resisted calls from both sides of the aisle to resign, including from Gov. Eric Holcomb. His own party chairman, Kyle Hupfer, said it was time for a change. Hill subsequently lost the convention bid for reelection for attorney general to Todd Rokita. (We don’t have a strong bench.)
In announcing his run for governor, Hill said, “Hoosiers are hungry for fresh, conservative leadership.” So, the joke goes: Hill walks into a bar, gets drunk and gropes the girls showing Hoosiers how fresh he can be. And leadership? Who would follow this guy? He disgraced Indiana. He disgraced himself.
You want a laugh out of this farcical situation? Esteemed political commentator Andy Downs stated that Hill could actually win this election. Andy, Hoosiers have a sense of humor but we can’t be that stupid.
Tired of laughing at the sad state of affairs in Indiana politics? Me too.•
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Maurer is an entrepreneur and a shareholder in IBJ Media.
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This is so on point. Thank you Mickey for writing it!!
Maybe I’m wrong but I think most main stream reasonable Republicans are not fans of either Pence or Rokita.
I think you would be correct. Many great Republicans, the ones mentioned here are not in that category. I would argue that Kyle Walker is one that would be in the great Republican category amongst others.
The problem is the “main stream reasonable Republicans” for the most part sat on their hands and said nothing while Don the Con usurped their party and now they’ve lost all control of both the party and its principles (or lack thereof).