Berl Falbaum
With this column we are announcing a name change in our award for hypocrisy and we are also revealing the first two-time winner of the Outstanding Hypocrite Award.
First the name change: From now on it will be called the Pence Outstanding Hypocrite Award (POHA, pronounced just like it looks with the accent on “PO”).
It is named after former Vice President Mike Pence, who said recently that in “good conscience” he cannot endorse his former boss, Donald Trump.
But Pence, who continually described himself as a religious man, welcomed the opportunity, in good conscience, to be Trump’s running mate, and for four years stood behind Trump with adoring eyes, and was part of what, arguably, can be described as the most immoral and corrupt administration in U.S. history.
Said Kenneth Adelman, who served in the Reagan administration: “I’d like my wife to look at me just for one day the way Mike Pence looks at President Trump every day they are together. That would be special.”
In a column on Pence’s subservience to Trump, the digital news site, the Intelligencer, described the former vice president’s “unrequited love for Trump.”
Given Pence’s “gold standard hypocrisy,” we believe he deserves the honor — actually dishonor — of having the award named after him.
Moving on, we have the first two-time winner of the POHA.
Before I “open the envelop,” let me emphasize that it takes lots of talent just to qualify for the award, let alone win the prize. But to win twice, well, that requires a unique gift.
The judges (me) spend significant time studying the hypocrisy of candidates; we do not take our responsibility lightly.
That said, the winner for the second time is none other than Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the longest-serving Senate leader in U.S. history. (He will be stepping down from his leadership position in November, but will serve as a senator until his term expires in January 2027.)
We bestowed the award to McConell the first time because in 2016 he blocked President Obama’s nomination for the Supreme Court, Merrick Garland. He argued that with only nine months before the presidential election, the next president should have the privilege of making that appointment. However, when President Trump, in 2020, nominated Amy Coney Barrett, just three weeks before the presidential election, McConnell rammed her confirmation through the Senate.
In our estimation, McConnell deserves the award again for his recent endorsement of Trump who, McConnell once charged, was “practically and morally responsible” for the January 6 insurrection.
Speaking on the Senate floor, McConnell let loose with the following indictment of Trump: “Former President Trump's actions preceding the riot were a disgraceful dereliction of duty. The House accused the former president of, quote, ‘incitement’. That is a specific term from the criminal law.
“Let me put that to the side for one moment and reiterate something I said weeks ago: There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day.
“The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president.
“And their having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on Planet Earth.”
If that were not enough to qualify for the POHA again, we considered the ugly racist charges Trump made about McConnell’s Taiwanese wife, Elaine Chao — McConnell’s “China-loving wife” — who served in Trump’s administration as Secretary of Transportation.
In one tweet, Trump wrote “Does Coco Chow have anything to do with Joe Biden’s Classified Documents being sent and stored in Chinatown?
“Her husband, the Old Broken Crow, is VERY close to Biden, the Democrats, and, of course, China,”
Besides McConnell’s second win, we have a new one-time winner to announce: South Carolina Representative Nancy Ruth Mace. Mace revealed that she was a rape victim in a speech on the Houe floor in 2019 and charged that victims are reluctant to come forward because they are defamed — exactly what Trump has done for years.
Nevertheless, while appearing on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” Mace defended her endorsement of Trump despite the fact that the former president was found guilty of sexual abuse. Indeed, the judge in the case, Lewis A. Kaplan, said the jury found that what Trump did was in fact rape. Kaplan wrote:
"The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was 'raped' within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump 'raped' her as many people commonly understand the word 'rape. Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that."
When Stephanopoulos asked her several times about the apparent inconsistency, in a heated exchange with Stephanopoulos, Mace accused him of trying to shame her.
She charged that the verdict came in a civil trial not in a criminal one, and that the victim, E. Jean Carroll, “joked” about the settlement which resulted in a $83.3 million defamation judgment against Trump.
After considerable reflection, we decided she deserves the POHA. Not only do we find her “defense” obtuse, to be kind, but she could have been asked about Trump’s overall perverse sexual history and treatment of women.
We almost forget: Five days after the January 6 insurrection, she blasted Trump for his incitement that “put all our lives at risk” and “we need to find some way to hold the president accountable.”
We will keep you abreast of POHA winners. As we have stated previously, there is no shortage of deserving candidates. We continue to welcome your nominations.
With this column we are announcing a name change in our award for hypocrisy and we are also revealing the first two-time winner of the Outstanding Hypocrite Award.
First the name change: From now on it will be called the Pence Outstanding Hypocrite Award (POHA, pronounced just like it looks with the accent on “PO”).
It is named after former Vice President Mike Pence, who said recently that in “good conscience” he cannot endorse his former boss, Donald Trump.
But Pence, who continually described himself as a religious man, welcomed the opportunity, in good conscience, to be Trump’s running mate, and for four years stood behind Trump with adoring eyes, and was part of what, arguably, can be described as the most immoral and corrupt administration in U.S. history.
Said Kenneth Adelman, who served in the Reagan administration: “I’d like my wife to look at me just for one day the way Mike Pence looks at President Trump every day they are together. That would be special.”
In a column on Pence’s subservience to Trump, the digital news site, the Intelligencer, described the former vice president’s “unrequited love for Trump.”
Given Pence’s “gold standard hypocrisy,” we believe he deserves the honor — actually dishonor — of having the award named after him.
Moving on, we have the first two-time winner of the POHA.
Before I “open the envelop,” let me emphasize that it takes lots of talent just to qualify for the award, let alone win the prize. But to win twice, well, that requires a unique gift.
The judges (me) spend significant time studying the hypocrisy of candidates; we do not take our responsibility lightly.
That said, the winner for the second time is none other than Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the longest-serving Senate leader in U.S. history. (He will be stepping down from his leadership position in November, but will serve as a senator until his term expires in January 2027.)
We bestowed the award to McConell the first time because in 2016 he blocked President Obama’s nomination for the Supreme Court, Merrick Garland. He argued that with only nine months before the presidential election, the next president should have the privilege of making that appointment. However, when President Trump, in 2020, nominated Amy Coney Barrett, just three weeks before the presidential election, McConnell rammed her confirmation through the Senate.
In our estimation, McConnell deserves the award again for his recent endorsement of Trump who, McConnell once charged, was “practically and morally responsible” for the January 6 insurrection.
Speaking on the Senate floor, McConnell let loose with the following indictment of Trump: “Former President Trump's actions preceding the riot were a disgraceful dereliction of duty. The House accused the former president of, quote, ‘incitement’. That is a specific term from the criminal law.
“Let me put that to the side for one moment and reiterate something I said weeks ago: There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day.
“The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president.
“And their having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on Planet Earth.”
If that were not enough to qualify for the POHA again, we considered the ugly racist charges Trump made about McConnell’s Taiwanese wife, Elaine Chao — McConnell’s “China-loving wife” — who served in Trump’s administration as Secretary of Transportation.
In one tweet, Trump wrote “Does Coco Chow have anything to do with Joe Biden’s Classified Documents being sent and stored in Chinatown?
“Her husband, the Old Broken Crow, is VERY close to Biden, the Democrats, and, of course, China,”
Besides McConnell’s second win, we have a new one-time winner to announce: South Carolina Representative Nancy Ruth Mace. Mace revealed that she was a rape victim in a speech on the Houe floor in 2019 and charged that victims are reluctant to come forward because they are defamed — exactly what Trump has done for years.
Nevertheless, while appearing on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” Mace defended her endorsement of Trump despite the fact that the former president was found guilty of sexual abuse. Indeed, the judge in the case, Lewis A. Kaplan, said the jury found that what Trump did was in fact rape. Kaplan wrote:
"The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was 'raped' within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump 'raped' her as many people commonly understand the word 'rape. Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that."
When Stephanopoulos asked her several times about the apparent inconsistency, in a heated exchange with Stephanopoulos, Mace accused him of trying to shame her.
She charged that the verdict came in a civil trial not in a criminal one, and that the victim, E. Jean Carroll, “joked” about the settlement which resulted in a $83.3 million defamation judgment against Trump.
After considerable reflection, we decided she deserves the POHA. Not only do we find her “defense” obtuse, to be kind, but she could have been asked about Trump’s overall perverse sexual history and treatment of women.
We almost forget: Five days after the January 6 insurrection, she blasted Trump for his incitement that “put all our lives at risk” and “we need to find some way to hold the president accountable.”
We will keep you abreast of POHA winners. As we have stated previously, there is no shortage of deserving candidates. We continue to welcome your nominations.
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