Red State’s Sarah Quinlan offers up a detailed list of Arpaio’s abuses of the rule of law while he was the former sheriff, concluding: “Nothing about Sheriff Joe Arpaio resembles any sort of justice or law and order under the United States Constitution, and it is disgraceful for Pence to pretend otherwise.”

Note who I’m quoting here. These are conservative outlets one would expect to be in lockstep with a good Christian conservative like Pence. But they are appalled — and they are not the only conservatives to react this way. In these politically polarized times, Mike Pence has managed to appall just about everyone across the political spectrum. That takes some doing.

Calling Arpaio a tireless champion of the rule of law is like calling Donald Trump a beacon of moral rectitude and, oh, now I get how Pence can do this. As Kellyanne Conway told Coppins, “Mike Pence is someone whose faith allows him to subvert his ego to the greater good.” In this case the greater good appears to be the political absolution of Arpaio, who Trump pardoned and is now running for the U.S. Senate.