Mike Pence Makes A Joke

One of the 1,000 annual train derailments in the U.S.

Pete Buttegieg exchanged marriage vows with his longtime boyfriend who is now his husband, and whose husband he is. The two husbands adopted twins and took two months maternity leave (which they call paternity leave), because the twins were born prematurely and had serious health issues, remaining in the hospital. 

In addition to being the current Secretary of Transportation, Pete is now also a parent. So we are all supposed to forgive that his leave coincided with total chaos in the transportation sector. After all, a sick baby trumps everything, right? No, not when there's another parent around and the highly trained nurses and doctors in the NICU were on-call 24/7. What could Pete add?

At the annual D.C. Gridiron Club dinner, a roast for politicians, Mike Pence targeted Buttigieg for taking leave "as “thousands of travelers were stranded in airports, the air traffic system shut down, and airplanes nearly collided on our runways.” Continuing, he delivered  his punchline: “Pete is the only person in human history to have a child and everyone else gets postpartum depression.”

So then Pete's husband, a nobody married to a somebody, demanded an apology from the former Vice President, a bigger somebody. Pete didn't even demand one! Mike Pence refused, pointing out that at a roast jokes are made at the expense of others,  including him, and he's not asking anyone for an apology.

Sorry, but marriage does not elevate a nobody to a somebody. Besides, the joke was pretty funny.