His inconspicuousness is engineered to keep all eyes on the president. But it’s also necessary to guard against whispers that he, not Trump, is running the show—a narrative fueled both by Pence’s standing in the party and by the fact that he has been empowered like no vice president before him to establish, sell and execute the administration’s agenda.

Pence may be a vice president with extraordinary input in the decision making process but it doesn't seem to me he "runs" things or has any more power than any of the other major players in the WH. He's an astute politician and if he was in charge we wouldn't see the chaos and disorder we've seen so far. It's not just Trump's tweets, as damaging as they are, that damages the WH. Whether Pence agrees with the travel ban or not he was capable of planning a careful executive order. Even beyond that he was capable of planning a politically competent roll out of a poorly worded executive order. He had neither the influence or power to affect either the order or it's roll out.

The same could be said for the health care repeal. It wasn't just a policy disaster it was a political disaster. Health care is difficult in so many ways but both the policy and the politics of it's roll out could have been improved if Ryan and a politically astute WH representative like Pence had worked together on it. Given the disaster it seems clear to me that Pence wasn't deeply involved in either or other players in the WH had at least as much if not more of a role. The only other explanation I see is that I'm giving Pence too much credit as a politically astute player when he's actually incompetent but, you know, I doubt that.

It is beginning to strike me that it must  take considerable skill to stay out from under that chaotically weaving big orange bus

...President Trump put fresh pressure on the second-highest-ranking official at the Justice Department on Friday.... “I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt,” the president said on Twitter. ...

Pence meets with Koch brother in Colorado

By Reid Wilson @ TheHill.com- 06/23/17 10:56 PM EDT

[....] The meeting was not on the vice president's schedule released by the White House late Thursday.

A spokesman for the vice president's office denied to The Hill earlier Friday that Pence would be meeting with the Koch brothers' network. The spokesman did not respond to requests for comments late Friday.

James Davis, a spokesman for the Koch brothers' network, said Pence and Charles Koch discussed issues ranging from tax reform to a measure reforming the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which President Trump signed Friday. The meeting lasted 50 minutes, Davis said.

Marc Short, the White House's director of legislative affairs who once served as Pence's chief of staff on Capitol Hill, and Marty Obst, a longtime Pence adviser who runs the vice president's political action committee, both sat in on the meeting.

On the Koch brothers' side of the room: Mark Holden, Koch Industries' general counsel; Tim Phillips, president of the Koch brothers-backed group Americans for Prosperity; Brian Hooks, president of the Charles Koch Foundation and the Charles Koch Institute; and Davis.

While President Trump had an almost non-existent relationship with the libertarian billionaire Koch brothers, Pence has a much longer history with both Charles and David Koch. 

Americans for Prosperity touted Pence's record as governor of Indiana. His former pollster Kellyanne Conway, now a senior adviser in the Trump White House, worked for a Koch network group. And Short, the White House's top lobbyist and former Pence chief of staff, once ran the Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, a key wing of the Koch brothers network [....]