PENCE DROPPING DIMES:

Throughout the sordid saga of Donald Trump's post-presidency, Mike Pence has shown Republicans another way. By defending his refusal to subvert the 2020 election results, Pence has illustrated -- in the face of Trump's fury -- that you can prioritize constitutional governance above loyalty to Trump and still call yourself a Republican.

Something similar may be unfolding with the scandal surrounding government documents that Trump improperly -- and possibly illegally -- had at his Mar-a-Lago resort, where federal agents searched the premises last week.

Pence allies are now quietly drawing attention to sharp differences in how the men handled their documents as Trump's presidency ended. Sources tell the New York Times that Pence aides scrupulously followed protocol in organizing his government papers -- a contrast obviously intended to reflect badly on Trump.

This disparity captures something essential about this situation. Pence is demonstrating that Republicans should want to handle documents responsibly, that maybe Trump's conduct in this regard might have been -- gasp! -- less than perfect. That's not a position many Republicans dare to articulate.

The Times quotes numerous sources blaming Mark Meadows for failing to oversee the handling of Trump's documents, effectively throwing the former White House chief of staff under the bus. The Times then adds this contrast with Pence:

As Mr. Trump sought to hold on to power, two of Mr. Pence's senior aides -- Marc Short, his chief of staff, and Greg Jacob, his counsel -- indexed and boxed all of his government papers, according to three former officials with knowledge of the work.

Mr. Jacob spent the bulk of his final few days in government preparing the final boxes, with the goal of ensuring that Mr. Pence left office without a single paper that did not belong to him, one of the officials said.

It's hard to imagine these points being made without at least tacit awareness on Pence's part. 

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