Maureen Groppe | USA TODAY

Dwight Adams, dwight.adams@indystar.com

Maureen Groppe, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – Democrats may not like President Donald Trump, but do they want the alternative?

“That is probably what we hear most from Democrats,” said Kevin Mack, lead strategist for the “Need to Impeach” President Donald Trump campaign. " 'Well, if we get rid of Trump, then we end up with (Mike) Pence.' "

As Trump’s presidency became more endangered this week with the conviction or guilty plea of two of his former aides, a new book about the vice president will stoke concerns about Pence.

1. Is he a 'Christian supremacist'?

In “The Shadow President: The Truth About Mike Pence,” on sale Tuesday, authors Michael D’Antonio and Peter Eisner cast Pence's background – congressman, Indiana governor, Trump VP – in a harsh light, arguing that “the most successful Christian supremacist in American history” is already functioning as a “kind of replacement president” and is preparing to “fashion a nation more pleasing to his god and corporate sponsors.”

A flattering preview of the book by New York Times columnist Frank Bruni – that ran under the headline “Mike Pence, Holy Terror” – already has religious leaders and other Pence supporters accusing Bruni and the book’s authors of religious bigotry. Saying he’d “never heard such hatred poured out against such a good man,” evangelist Franklin Graham urged supporters to pray that God will put a “hedge of protection” around Pence and his family.

2. It's not the first Pence warning

The authors are not the first to raise alarms about who is waiting in the wings should Trump leave office – voluntarily or involuntarily.

Arguing Pence has taken advantage of the chaos of the Trump administration to amass “enormous power” under the radar, the Human Rights Campaign launched a campaign earlier this year to highlight Pence’s record on issues important to the LGBTQ community.

Former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman writes in her new memoir that Pence is biding his time until Trump resigns or is impeached.

“As bad as you think Trump is, you should be worried about Pence,” she said on "Celebrity Big Brother" in February after leaving the White House. “He thinks Jesus tells him to say things.”

View | 81 Photos

Get to know the VP: A look at Mike Pence

3. 'Weaponized' niceness

Authors D’Antonio and Eisner are no fans of Pence.

While Pence may have cited convicted Watergate conspirator Charles Colson as a “dear friend and mentor” because of the religious conversion Colson underwent in prison, the authors assert – without substantiation – that it’s “just as likely that Pence was drawn to Colson’s lingering aggressive tendencies.”

They comment on Pence’s favorite movie by noting that he loved "The Wizard of Oz" “despite the feminist power of its main characters.”

And Pence’s trademark “extreme niceness” is not benign in the authors’ eyes. Instead, Pence has “weaponized” his niceness as “a tool of persuasion and deflection.”

4. What is Pence deflecting?

While Trump is who he said he was, the authors write, Pence’s “pious and cautious exterior hid a desire for power equal to Trump’s.”

The book asserts that many of Pence’s evangelical friends believed his ultimate purpose is to establish a government based on biblical law, what they called “Christian Dominionism.”

But some of the examples of how religion has guided Pence as a policymaker leave out important details. For example, while the authors suggest religion is behind Pence’s rejection of policies to address climate change, they don’t factor in Indiana’s reliance on coal-fired power plants, a reason even some Democrats in Indiana opposed the Obama administration’s efforts to restrict greenhouse gas emissions.

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Trump/Pence: A look at their journey to the White House

5. President in the shadows

The authors paint a conflicting portrait of Pence’s abilities. They say he was the least qualified vice presidential candidate since Sarah Palin and Spiro Agnew, with his background as an “inept” legislator in Congress and a “middling" governor who didn’t like to work hard and was more interested in the status of the job than the job itself. (Pence, they write, was the first governor to order up a collection of custom-embroidered clothes decorated with his name and the words “Governor of Indiana.”)

Yet despite that lackluster background, the authors say Pence has been functioning as a kind of shadow president, “taking on so many domestic, foreign and partisan political assignments that he seemed more engaged in serious matters than the TV-addicted president himself.”

6. Pushback on 'religious bigotry'

There is one area where the authors and Pence’s supporters may agree. The book asserts that white conservative Christians, despite their “vast numbers and influence,” see themselves as victims. They cheer when Pence asserts, “No people of faith today face greater hostility or hatred than followers of Christ.”

In fact, in reacting to the book as it was portrayed in Bruni’s column, former Pence spokesman Marc Lotter told the Christian Broadcasting Network that the column is indicative of the “never-ending attack on Christianity.”

Conservative columnist Rebecca Hagelin wrote that the media is trying to discredit Pence “simply because he is a committed Christian.”

Meanwhile, Mack of Need to Impeach has his answer ready for why those worried about a Pence presidency should still push to get rid of Trump.

"It’s kind of like saying, 'I have terminal cancer but I don’t want to deal with it because I might get diabetes,' " he said. "You have to deal with the first problem, and then we’ll deal with the second problem."

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A peek inside the vice presidential residence of Karen and Mike Pence