On Pence:

edit to add Greg Miller comment on the above:

Looking at this piece, I wonder if knowing many of the above facts matter because impeachment is a political thing and he is going to play his usual game of made up alternate reality, change the subject to straw men and suck up all the media coverage. As noted with "worries Republicans", this reflects back on them. So it's an "on the other hand", they might vote to impeach if the narrative is kept simple and to specific point. Those would not want to see everyone else go down, to make the whole admin. corrupt would just make them look bad for ignoring it. While they may be open to a vote specific to Trump misdeeds alone?

Impeachment War Room? Trump Does It All Himself, and That Worries Republicans

by Haberman & Karni @ NYTimes.com, Oct. 2, 11:21 pm

The White House itself has no organized response to the impeachment, and some aides doubt whether it even poses a serious threat.

[....] Mr. Trump has long believed that he is the best communicator in the White House, but as the presidential campaign picks up its pace and the prospect of his impeachment becomes more real, he seems to be its only empowered communicator, a one-man war room responding to developments almost hour by hour. And that is making many Republicans anxious. 

For now, the White House has no organized response to impeachment, little guidance for surrogates to spread a consistent message even if it had developed one, and minimal coordination between the president’s legal advisers and his political ones. And West Wing aides are divided on everything from who is in charge to whether, after two years of the investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, impeachment even poses a serious political threat to the president.

“This is a very different animal than the Mueller investigation,” said Josh Holmes, a former top aide to Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader. “It’s a political question, not a legal one. They need to persuade Republicans in the House and the Senate of a bunch of really good arguments to have the partywide insulation the president is going to prefer going into this fight.”

And the White House has a narrow runway to adjust and tighten its response, with just over a week until the congressional recess ends. At that point, Republicans will return from their home districts and face questions about Mr. Trump’s tweets and condemnation of the whistle-blower — questions they might have difficulty answering.[....]

Five Thirty Eight is now tracking the polls on mpeachment:

What Putin got, by Molly McKew: