Gov. Pence loses battle of words
Words matter.
Sometimes the omission of words matter even more.
The state of Indiana now has an Ommisioner-in-chief in Gov. Mike Pence.
Two Sundays ago, Pence refused to directly answer questions about Indiana’s brand new “Religious Freedom and Restoration Act.”
They only required yes or no answers.
George Stephanopoulos, the host of ABC’s This Week, asked six variations of the question, “Yes or no, if a florist in Indiana refuses to serve a gay couple at their wedding, is that legal now in Indiana?”
And six times Pence gave long-winded answers – none of which contained the words “yes” or “no.”
Pence knew there had been an ever-growing groundswell of criticism about the new law, and he’d appeared that Sunday morning to “clarify” Indiana’s intent.
No matter how much Stephanopoulos pressed Pence to admit religious rights wouldn’t interfere with the rights of gay people, he simply claimed that the law had been grossly misinterpreted.
Further, Pence claimed, “We’re not gonna change the law.”
That was Sunday.
Little more than 24 hours later, that groundswell had erupted into a political earthquake.
Major corporations began publicly slamming the law; a number of high-profile Americans derided the law as being just another form of discrimination; and the governors of at least three states claimed they wouldn’t allow their states to authorize travel to Indiana.
In fact, in North Carolina, where there’s a similar law being considered, the Republican governor, Pat McCrory, has pointedly asked, “What is the problem they’re trying to solve? I haven’t seen it at this point.”
And worse, as far as Gov. Pence was concerned, the leaders of the Republican-controlled Indiana General Assembly held a hastily called news conference to say they were working on a “fix” so that the new law can’t be used as a means to discriminate against people because of their sexual orientation.
And they claimed it was Pence’s curious national TV appearance the previous day that caused them to act so quickly.
“Is part of the fact that you gentlemen are here today, because of the governor’s performance with George Stephanopoulos,” one reporter asked.
“I think the fact that he did not answer some questions clearly, yes,” replied Indiana’s Republican Speaker of the House, Brian Bosma.
There was something else that was quite troubling about that news conference. Another reporter indicated that proponents of the new law expressed that it could enable them to refuse services to gay people, as far back as last December.
Yet the Republicans backing the bill took no steps to avoid that (supposed) misinterpretation of it.
They simply claimed, as the Republican leaders did last Monday that, “A small tribe of people are suggesting that it does that. They are mistaken.”
So, those people who had written the law, knew there were people who had the intentions of using it to discriminate against gay people, but they proceeded, full speed ahead, anyway.
By Tuesday, with Indiana standing to lose hundreds of millions of dollars, because at least 10 major businesses were putting pressure on the state, Pence held his own news conference.
He reiterated his belief that the law wasn’t intended to discriminate against anybody.
But he admitted that he hadn’t been as forthcoming as he could have been when he’d appeared on Sunday.
“I could have handled it better this weekend,” he said after claiming he’d back a “clarification” of the law.
“It would be helpful to move legislation this week that makes it clear that this law does not give businesses the right to deny services to anyone,” Pence told reporters.
That’s something he said wouldn’t happen two days earlier.
Pence knows words matter. He spent 12 years in the U.S. House of Representatives. Before that, he’d been a syndicated talk show host.
He’s playing a dangerous game by trying to walk a political high wire over a broadly-written piece of legislation. One that may or may not have been intended to give a wink-and-a-nod to those people who might not want to consider the rights of gay people.
He should’ve known better.
Edward A. Owens is a three-time Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net