President Gerald Ford died last night, at the age of 93. From the Washington Post:
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr., 93, who became the 38th president of the United States as a result of some of the most extraordinary events in U.S. history and sought to restore the nation's confidence in the basic institutions of government, has died. His wife, Betty, reported the death in a statement last night.
"My family joins me in sharing the difficult news that Gerald Ford, our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather has passed away at 93 years of age," Betty Ford said in a brief statement issued from her husband's office in Rancho Mirage, Calif. "His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country."
I switched on CNN in time to watch our current President describe Mr. Ford in glowing terms, as a decent man, an honorable man who served his country and helped us through trying times. His words were sincere, but incomplete. The analysts will no doubt fill in the rest, and the nation's media are already saying "he saved a nation," and quoting that famous speech in which Ford, newly sworn in as President following the resignation of Richard Nixon, proclaimed, "Our long national nightmare is over."
But it wasn't. Nixon left in disgrace, but Cheney and Rumsfeld were in the wings. And they would return. We needed one more statement from Mr. Ford, but now he is dead.
Rest in peace, Gerald Ford. Our condolences and best wishes to the family.
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RIP Jerry, and blessings to your fine wife.
Gerald Ford seemed to me to be a decent and honest man and I take his report that he pardoned Nixon for the reasons he stated without comment. But, independent of his integrity or his logic, I think that this pardon was an indelible error that may never be redeemed.
Our system of criminal justice has evolved over centuries that antedate our existence. It contains as many safeguards against unjust punishment as our society can tolerate. The long legal process Mr. Ford mentioned is not an instrument to inflicting suffering, it is to insure that the guilty receive fair treatment under the law. Whether punishment prevents future crime will be debated until the end of history, but it is not a debate that concerns us in individual cases, it’s for legal scholars considering the whole system. Our law is, in fact, part of the phrase “… all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” And when they break our laws, the State is empowered to suspend those rights. Ford pardoned Nixon giving two reasons – sparing Nixon and his family the agony of prolonged personal suffering, and sparing the country the agony of the open wound of Watergate. Wrong on both counts. Painfully wrong on both counts.
Gerald Ford took a step towards creating an American Royalty in declaring Nixon a special case. All men are not created equal in this distorted view. Some are destined for specialness because they have reached a level of power. That was a grievous error. If we’re equal, we’re equal. We had a revolution about that. We said “no” to royalty a long time ago.
The idea that we could put the nation’s trauma from Watergate behind us was even worse. It’s a common logic with trauma. Putting trauma “behind us” means that it will “follow us” for all time. And that’s exactly what happened. We have been stalked by Watergate since September 1974. There is a shame on our Presidency that is as alive today as it was on the day this pardon was issued.
Had Ford not pardoned Nixon, one of two things would have happened. Nixon would have had to face the law of our country and we would have been able to work through the trauma of Watergate. Or Nixon might have pardoned himself and we would have had to deal with the “pardon” loophole directly. Laws might have been changed. Reagan might not have been able to create an environment that produced Iran-Contra. Bush and Cheney might have thought twice about pursuing their Oil War in the Middle East. The whole malarkey of “executive privilege” might have been resolved once and for all. Executive Privilege is currently killing us in the form of no oversight, signing statements, secret programs hidden as “national security” issues, etc. And “dirty tricks” might not be living and well as everyday political tools.
Gerald Ford’s pardon left us in worse shape than before Nixon resigned. It left us with an open wound hidden under a sanitized dressing – a festering cancer. If anything, Ford’s pardoning Nixon was the trauma of Watergate from which we may never recover. Whether Gerald Ford’s pardon was a deal he cut with Nixon or a decision he made with much soul searching is immaterial. It was a tragic, maybe fatal, mistake.
Gerald Ford was an incredibly decent man — who put his country above his own career to step into the political breach instead of staying cozy in his perch atop the House where he could have served, faithfully, for years to come. He put his nation first.
Would that more people in politics had that same commitment.
The Last of the Republicans.
‘Mornin’, Scarecrow.
Ford was human, had his foibles and frailties, but he was a good family man, the kind of guy who didn’t take himself so seriously that he couldn’t laugh at himself. He was a man of good intentions; I think that this is a point of conflict for many of us progressives. While he didn’t subscribe to or fulfill what we would have desired as progressives, he didn’t ride cavalierly as a conservative, either. We could have had another Nixon in the wake of Nixon’s resignation, but we didn’t.
And I honestly don’t think Ford had a clue about the kind of baby vipers he had inherited from the previous administration, nursed at Nixon’s breast and further educated under Reagan’s addled and excessively enabling tenure. Not certain at all how Ford could have squelched in their cribs the now fully mature vicious vipers in office.
I remember when I was in the 4th grade, I was mocked by my teacher for doing an essay on how I thought the Warren Commission was a whitewash. It was the first time I had heard of Gerald Ford, and he was the one who decided not to bring Jack Ruby to Washington DC to testify. Apparently, Republicans weren’t fond of the truth back then either.
You didn’t open The Gift?
Mickey — agreed that the pardon made for one helluva breach. But, in all honesty, I’m not certain that there wasn’t going to be an enormous breach either way — the pardon just got us to it more quickly and, perhaps, past it more quickly in Ford’s mind. The scar that Nixon and company left on the nation’s politics is still visible. And, as Scarecrow rightly points out, it lives on in the idiocy of Rummy and Cheney.
Mickey @ # 2
Excellent points there. The pardon was a huge mistake for the reasons you list. The unbelievable mess, we in the US find ourselves in now, is directly related to Ford’s error. May he rest in peace.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 7
Christy – as one old enough to remember, I tend to agree that the pardon, on balance, accomplished more good than evil. I tend to wonder if, without the pardon, it could have been argued successfully that Nixon could NOT have gotten a fair trial, or worse, that a trial was held and that a verdict either way would have been found to be tainted.
Also, let us not forget that it was the pardon, in the main, that brought us Jimmy Carter, instead of a full Ford term.
“Morning all.
Rayne – I agree with your take on the man; not sure anyone saw what the people around him might do.
Mickey — it’s an interesting argument, that the country needed to go through the trials and further exposures as a kind of catharsis. On the other hand, the precedent Ford set might make it easier to have the same scene enacted for the present regime.
I understand the thought process that led Gerald Ford to pardon Nixon, and I believe his decision was sincere and in good faith.
Nonetheless, I have to side with Mikey on this, it set off a chain of events that has taken this country, in a single generation, very far from the democratic ideals of our Founding Fathers.
Like Christy, I see the pardon as providing cover and precedent for the pre-emtive pardon of Casper Weinberger and the failure to bring the Iran Contra criminals to justce.
I can trace a direct line from Nixon’s claim of Executive Privledge to the perversion of law that John Yoo calls the theory of the Unitary Executive.
I see the abuse of classification power at work in the current adiministration as a direct outgrowth of Nixon’s false claims that requiring him to produce evidence to the Specail Prosecutor would endanger national security.
And if Dick Cheney gets up at the Libby trial and testifies that Cheney verbally authorized Libby to leak the NIE thereby instantly declassifying it, how is that different than Nixon’s claim that “if the president does it, it’s not illegal”?
By putting “our long national nightmare behind us” we have avoided dealing with the causes of the nightmare. And as with all problems left unresolved and unremediated, these problems have festered and putrifed and came back in a more virulent form.
I believe Gerald Ford was good, decent man. I never had any illusions that he was a smart man or able to forsee the consequences of his well intended, but mistaken decision.
I believe od will judge him more kindly than I, becuase when St. Peter gives you the entrance exam, good intentions DO count.
May I suggest reading the Wikipedia entry on former President Ford?
This guy was clearly NOT cut from the same cloth as the current generations of Republicans.
And while the pardon might not have been a perfect solution, it was the best solution at the time for a country that was still in upheaval post-Vietnam and post-Watergate.
The problems we have on our hands today are in no small part because we as progressives did not remain as focused and organized as we should have, while Republicans retooled and regeared their organization since Ford’s time. Had we been on our toes, 1994 and subsequent Congressional elections would have been far tighter, resulting in better oversight.
edit: And believe me, I blame myself a LOT for the lack of progressive focus. I should have spent as much time working for progressive candidates as I did partying when I was younger. Lived and learned a very expensive lesson.
He was one of the Samarai Seven who found the ‘Magic Bullet’ in Dealey Plaza.
Which is the beginning of the Nation’s ‘long national nightmare’.
Once elevated into the Oval Office, here’s a photo to consider:
http://writingcompany.blogs.co…..cheney.jpg
I’m sorry. I have nothing but contempt for this conspirator.
Blank Kludge — interesting photo to select. Notice Ford’s closed body language? Or how the two vipers in the picture are dressed like used car salesmen?
edit: Also need to keep in mind those two car salesmen are 20 years or more younger than the senior man in the photo. I suspect this also might have led Ford to be more generous than he should have been; probably saw these “kids” as he did his own kids, beneficently.
And “it lives on in the idiocy” of the Bush family, I think.
The major difficulty I find with Ford was he perhaps belonged to the wrong party. Of course I realize the Republican Party was far different in Ford’s time, than it is today.
I don’t fault Ford for pardoning Nixon. After all, nobody died in that presidential lying binge. But if anyone ever pardons Bush or Cheney, assuming convictions for both, I would find that unforgivable. Arguments to the contrary would most likely find me unmoved.
President Carter liked President Ford, and for me that says quite a bit on Ford’s behalf.
As far as decent men are concerned, you have Gerald Ford at one end, and George W. Bush at the other. They say ‘only the good die young’. Well… in Ford’s case that old saying is surely incorrect.
Rayne @ 14
They look like two cobras about to strike. That picture is a little eerie.
It’s sad that Gerald Ford has died, and I feel bad for his family and those who knew him, but really, what did he do? The WaPo says he “sought to restore the nation’s confidence in the basic institutions of government” but in fact his pardon of Nixon brought it to what was then a new low. Then, after being thrown out of office for that betrayal, he spent the next thirty years playing golf while costing us millions of dollars a year. A somber occasion? Yes. A loss to the nation? I must disagree.
looseheadprop — you’ve heard, of course, that sharks smile before they bite…
;-)
Rayne…couldn’t find the one I wanted. Nonetheless, your points are valid.
(Back during the first national nightmare, he was Hoover’s boy/mole on the WC. ‘Scratch’ has been waiting to collect.)
looseheadprop — one wonders if the trials and further exposures would have prevented the future — our present. I fear that the instincts that led to today are deeply ingrained in part of the human psyche and would have appeared in others even if they hadn’t surfaced in Cheney/Rummy et al.
I remember the Watergate series that Bill Moyers did on PBS — they told the story as well as one might hope — and yet it wasn’t enough.
We have to fight this battle every day. It is the basic issue of politics.
Speaking for myself there are two giants to come out of that whole Nixon mess. Both Republicans. One was AG Elliot Richardson. The other was William Ruckelshaus. Both these men have, I believe have been somewhat overlooked.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 21
Yes. And there was Barbara Jordan and Archie Cox. The contrast with Alberto Gonzalez and crew is striking.
Scarecrow @ 20
I agree that the battle to preserve the democracy bequeathed to us by the founders requires eternal vigilence. However, the precedents set by the ahndling of Watergate and Iran Contra mean that we have to not merely prevent a rape of our Constitution, we have to go back and undo the mistakes of the past.
This is very difficult in a legal system based of precedent and stare decisis
It slogging through cold mud, uphill all the way
Oklahoma kiddo @ 21
Sorry but there were more giants than those two. Sam Ervin and John Sirica are two that come to mind immediately. Further thought gives me James McCord (who, let’s face it, without his note to Sirica, Watergate would have been nothing but a ‘third rate burglary’). And let us not forget those GOP members of the Judiciary committee who voted for the impeachment resolution, despite tremendous political pressure to keep it partisan (and this was before SCOTUS came down with their opinion that Nixon turn over the tapes).
I wonder what John Dean will write in honor of the day and the man?
OK (21) — and I think John Dean has become a most excellent teacher, having been shaped by the debacle of Watergate. Notice the contrast between him and the cabal in office, how erratic the lessons learned from Nixon and his crimes.
I am reminded of Mark Antony’s speech from Julius Caesar:
I like Judge John Sirica too. And as it turns out, John Dean as well. I even like Martha Mitchell.
There were lots of Demo giants during Watergate. But the ones who impress me the most are the Republican giants that came out of that time.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 21
Yes, indeed. Profiles in Courage.
Scarecrow @ 22
Remembering Watergate has been painful this morning – as painful as reliving it with the Bush/Cheney/Rove version. So thanks for the Barbara Jordan and Archie Cox reminders.
Come Back to the Five and Dime, Barbara Jordan, Barbara Jordan!
The one GOOD thing about the Watergate fiasco, is that republicans, first as prinicpled individuals speaking truth to power, and later, the party elders; put country ahead of party.
I don’t think we have seen that since.
They say that the Repbilcan party is the “daddy” party and the Democratic party is the “mommy” party. That may have been true back then, when the republicans had grownups in charge. People who could take a longer view, and understood that sometimes there are larger things at stake than partisanship.
Though I clearly disagree with the specifics of Ford’s decison to pardon, I do believe that he was one of these grownups.
The current republican party, however, has become the party of spoiled brats who need a time out. They want what they want, when they want it. Don’t care if the country can afford it, don’t care if the consequences will be disasterous, and whine and cry if anybody criticizes them.
What a contrast to President Ford.
looseheadprop @ 25
I heard him interviewed on BBC streaming ‘World Service’ last night about 1am eastern. Maybe they don’thave it archived yet…searching yields me no results…but I’m an amateur of ’search term limits’.
He was cordial to Ford. Called him something like a ‘bridge’ president; leading nation out of the darkness.
Just at the end, he went into Cheney being ‘traumatized by the post-Watergate revokation of the Imperial Presidency. Said ‘Cheney never got over it.’ Concluded with, ‘Of course, Dick Cheney is now the Vice President.’
Beautifully stated Scarecrow, as always. Thanks to everyone for a great thread, attending to the full complexity of Ford and the times in which he played such an important role.
dratty @ 24
I think it’s interesting that having forced Nixon’s resignation, these people are all seen as heros, as strong, principled people who put the country first. Our inability to force Bush to resign or to hold him accountable, even for censure, mean we see the present generation as lacking in courage and conviction. I wonder when/if that will change.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 27
OMG I forgot about Martha. The BEST comic relief during that whole period. And yeah, I still think they had her killed.
LHP at 31 — I think a lot of the GOP wanna be power brokers learned the wrong lesson from Watergate — that putting the nation before party and power led to Ford’s loss to Carter and the wholesale GOP smackdown in the Congressional elections. What they did not understand is that, had the whole of the GOP stood up and done the decent thing, those losses might have been mitigated substantially. Character does matter — we saw that in the last election cycle when the nation as a whole repudiated the Bush Administration and their sycophantic supporters for lacking the character necessary to lead like grown-ups ought to lead. The fact that they still have not learned this lesson is sad — and very, very telling. It is all about power, and never about true leadership.
With Ford’s passing, perhaps Howard Baker will follow John Dean’s lead and speak up.
BushCo and his thieves have given the “Baby
Boomers” Generation a black eye.
Is there a way to de-generation myself, besides
faking my birth date?
Jack
Though I’m willing to give Ford the benefit of the doubt that it was made for best of reasons, The Pardon is unpardonable.
The great lesson of Watergate was that the Rule of Law is greater than the political power of men or parties. Ford’s decision to short circuit this lesson resulted in the fact that ultimately, politics went on as usual. Money rules, dirty tricks are allowed, winning is everything and there is little consequence for misdeeds. If you liked Iran-Contra, Lee Atwater, Willie Horton, McCain/Bush in SC, Karl Rove, Mellon-Scaife, the Arkansas Project, Florida in 2000 and Swiftboating, well then you probably liked The Pardon. It was our best opportunity squandered to reform the political process. I cannot forgive Gerald Ford for this.
One more statement? Surely this wasn’t it:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories…..4717.shtml
Bolding to echo Joey2Face…
Myself, I’d have liked hearing about a fourth bullet…but that’s just me.
Ford was a decent man. Seemingly the last of the Ward Cleaver branch of the Republican Party.
I believe the fix was in on the pardon. Not because of the kind of man Ford was, but because of Nixon’s character. There is no way Nixon would have left without that understanding.
As to the merits of the pardon, although it enraged me at the time, in retrospect it was probably a good thing. In the prior 10 years the nation had just been through too much. It was time to chill out.
It has been a horror to watch the people who lived through Watergate, putting the country first, jump on the GW Bush bandwagon in the post-9/11 hysteria/political expediency/political opportunism period.
People who knew better simply looked the other way while America got beaten and battered like an abused spouse.
From the next hurrah So Gerald Ford has died
By Sara
Blank Kludge — look at the timing of Ford’s first elected office, as Representative; he served under Eisenhower, who was concerned with an excess of power given to the military. Note also the positions that Rumsfeld held during the Ford Administration; Ford’s view of Rumsfeld was entirely different from the one we have now, nearly thirty years later.
Thirty years is nearly a lifetime. In the last thirty years, the Republican Party as we knew it died and became something incredibly toxic, something that people like John Dean no longer recognize.
Here’s another photo of the ‘Three Weird Sisters’ in the Oval Office.
http://www.ford.utexas.edu/avproj/a4154-07.jpg
Interesting thoughts about what has lead us to this debacle-we all the roots go way back. I just finished (yesterday) reading Scott Anderson (writer, war correspondent & good guy)’s newest book. This one is fiction-called Moonlight Hotel but it’s message is similar to the one in “The Man Who Tried to Save the World”-which is non fiction- both show a CIA/military complex that is entrenched and without honor/morals. I highly reccomend both but I realy push The Man Who Tried to Save the World” to anyone who wants to understand foreign policy in the the 70’s-today. It is the story of Scott’s looking into the disappearence of relief worker Fred Cuny in Chechnya . blurb says “one of the most gripping accounts of spycraft & gamemanship in today’s wars”
Thirty years is nearly a lifetime. In the last thirty years, the Republican Party as we knew it died and became something incredibly toxic, something that people like John Dean no longer recognize.
Pretty well sums up the meaning of Ford’s death.
A friend of mine has defined the divergent paths chosen after a trauma as either a “traumatic event” or a “significant emotional event”; the difference between the two being how one chooses to deal with the ugliness of the situation.
If something awful is a “significant emotional event” it is because those involved spent time with the mess and attempted some measure of resolution if not down right reconciliation. They spent time in the muck and worked through the pain and came to a conclusion that was able to put the event to rest and leave the participants free of its baggage. Ford’s pardon, in his mind, may have been such an attempt, but it has proven to remain a traumatic event; something that has been shoved in the closet that is still making noise and is very much alive but willfully ignored and severely protected from the curiosity of youngsters. It is a dirty family secret that NO ONE will ever get rid of.
Whoever said it upthread is right on; putting trauma behind you without spending time in all its implications will only bring it tagging after you all your life.
I was ten years old when Ford pardoned Nixon, so I will leave it to others to speak to Ford’s character and state of mind then. All I know is that his good intentions have paved this current road to hell for us.
awesome thread
best Watergate bumpersticker: IMPEACH THE COX-SACKER
Mornin’ Firedogs,
Tweety and the rest of the Cocktail Weenie Gang blathering for the last 45 minutes and not a peep about -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayagüez_incident
http://hetstence.com/blog/media/win_button ford.jpg
http://www.capitalcentury.com/1976.html
oh, and did I mention the Warren Commission ?
http://www.jfklancer.com/Ford-Rankin.htm
more coffee kidz ?
Rayne @ 44
Fair enough. Begging the question (I think in both uses)
Why did Nixon pick G.R.Ford to replace Spiro? Out of all possible choices?
That question is for entertainment purposes only. The only answer I see holding water is ‘We’ll never know.’ And echoes back to another question I have…but that’s just me. ;->
Sharkbabe @ 49
Guess we need a new one: IMPEACH THE BUSH WANKER
Scarecrow’s upstairs with more fresh thready goodness…he claims he has writer’s block.
Yah, sure.
I see one of my links doesn’t work (btw, I still have mine):}
http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/1…..button.jpg
morning, all… coffee’s ready.
I was surprised last night, when I heard the news, of just how sad I was. Seems like it used to be (with the exception of the aberration, Nixon) that Republicans were the opponent, not the enemy.
I worked for Carter. I laughed at Ford’s WIN (whip inflation now) buttons, but it never, ever occurred to me that Ford was anything other than a decent man.
Condolences to Betty Ford, who has earned our respect.
Two little points:
Martha Mitchell was more than comic relief. She was trapped in that nightmare. Remember the flowers that arrived at her grave: Martha was right!
And, please, don’t say Ford was our only unelected president. He was our first. Living under the second one makes us all Martha Mitchell.
If you are too young to have remembered Nixon’s quitting (I was in college), ask yourself this: Bush. Do you think he should just leave office normally in 2009, and then get pardoned for everything he has done?
If you say HELL NO, you will understand why so many Americans were really mad that Ford did this. “National nightmare” indeed. And sweeping everything under the rug did not help.
I don’t see how we can keep this from happening again … unless Bush and Cheney are taken out of office before 2009, no pardons — let them pay for their mistakes. Do I think this will happen? Hell no. You know, this is America — we must “make peace” with crooks, rather than obtain justice.
Ga — Yes! Martha Mitchell was great. But you know what DC and the GOPers do to truth-tellers.
After watching the hearings for months, I was more than a bit disappointed of the Pardon of Nixon. I wonder how Daniel Ellsberg feels about it, as he took the risk in exposing the papers to the threat of long imprisonment.
Pam, over at the House Blend has an interesting article up about Ford’s support for civil equality for gay people.
I never knew that before.
Watergate was the signature event that turned me into a political junkie. My naivete’ was kicked to the curb. I was transfixed by the televised hearings and the daily scuttlebutt in the newspapers. But when the pardon came down, I was enraged. It might have been my youthful idealism that was insulted by this event. I was years away from truly understanding “realpolitik”. But I knew in my guts that we had now created a special class of people; those who were too high-and-mighty and/or too politically connected to answer before the law. I knew then and there that a precedent had been sent that we would regret some day. That day is now. If Shrubco is not held to the letter and the spirit of the law, then we will have created a hole in the law that can never be filled. Our concept of the “rule of law” will become an anachronism. A separate – and unequal – law will apply to those who rule. Just what we needed — NOT — our very own “royals”!
And finally… Rest in peace, Pres. Ford. You were a decent man.
dratty @
9
I completely disagree. The pardon was a travesty. Y’all can look at this evil man with rose-colored glasses all you want, but personally, I think the world just got a little better with that SOB’s passing.
I always HATED him for pardoning Nixon. More than any other individual, Ford started us down the road toward “Four legs good, two legs BETTER!”
Good riddance.
Ford to NYC:Drop Dead
sought to restore the nation’s confidence in the basic institutions of government
Yeah, right – by helping Nixon avoid responsibility for his crimes. That really restored my confidence in government, yessiree.
You people talking all this crap about how “decent” Ford was need to get a clue. Ford sold the entire country down the river. If anything, he was a bigger crook than Nixon ever dreamed of being.
Ford was the first, and only, Republican I’ve ever voted for national office. I felt, in 1976, that he’d done a fairly good job and our country needed the continuity to continue to “heal” (lord, how I hate that word!) from Watergate.
He was a decent man and he should be honored for that. The fact he married Betty should also be cause for his honoring, too!
phoebes @
66
He pardoned Nixon. That alone precludes any definition of decency. I only wish he had suffered much, much more.
Reagan got it right when it came to suffering in this life, for his crimes. I can only hope for such a fate for Bush 1 and 2.
I was too young to understand Watergate when it happened, but one has to wonder if Ford really had a clue as to how the precedent he set with the pardon would play out down the road.
Ford was a generally amiable guy who shines by comparison with those Republicans who run the nation today (and are on their way out). And there’s no doubt that he smoothed the way to get a criminal out of the White House. The Nixon pardon? A sincere but misguided effort, I think.
The media will now devote itself to numerous portrayals of Ford’s virtues, which is traditional during a period of mourning, but most will gloss over the fact that Ford was a dutiful GOP shill for Nixon even before Watergate. Anyone remember Ford’s comical effort to impeach William O. Douglas?
Hey, Clusterfuck is an “amiable guy,” doesn’t make him any less evil. Peel away the mask of the “amiable” Gerald ford and, like ALL republicans, you see the face of Satan.
GPB — your initial comment bordered on ad hominem.
Try comparing Gerald Ford’s Wikipedia entry with any of the current cabal’s Wikipedia entries. He was not a perfect man, being merely human, but he had the capacity to learn that none of the bastards now in office currently have.
There was no precedent for him to follow with regards to Nixon; there was still an active Fourth Estate and a Congress that took its responsibility of oversight seriously. He still belonged to the party of Goldwater, small government and fiscal responsibility. Ford could hardly see that what he did would have an entirely different outcome given the circumstances under which he made his decision.
Hell, until 1994, I still thought we had a Fourth Estate myself, and that Congress would provide oversight, and that a President would not be stupid or arrogant enough to breach his Constitutional contract.
And no, I don’t believe ALL Republicans are evil; I reject your premise, just as I would reject the premise that all Democratic Party folk are somehow incapable of evil. Evil has no party affiliation, race, gender, sexual orientation. I personally find the evil of George Bush and Dick Cheney to be in a league of its own, the wanton, willful, unnecessary and unmourned deaths of hundreds of thousands of humans far more wretched than Ford’s Solomonic choice.
He pardoned Nixon. That was the defining momnent for the cabal we have now.
“We’re above the law, screw the law, we do what we want. Respect our authoritah!”
That ALL started with Ford and the pardon.
Sorry, I’ve yet to meet a repuke that’s not inherently evil. Enjoy your weakness.
I wonder if some are looking at Ford through the prism of today’s political environment. Granted, Cheney and Rumsfeld sprang from the Ford administration and I agree that some of the negative comments about Ford have merit, but I personally still believe Bush makes Nixon look like a choir boy.
I was a kid during the Nixon scandal. We’d never had a Vietnam before. But we have one now. The heartbreak of what’s happening now is that our leaders have learned nothing from what happened then. That’s not really Ford’s fault.
GPB — there have been quite a number of corrupt Democratic Party members, elected and otherwise, over the course of this country’s history. Weakness exists on both sides of the partisan line.
And I have met and known and count among my friends good, kind, generous Republicans — but they are appalled at what has happened to their party, some in denial. I’ve also met some Dems who are vicious, nasty, selfish, egotists who have taken their own party down rather than lose one iota of their personal power.
The challenge to us is save this country; it requires me to be extremely partisan to do so. But assuming we can save this country, it is incumbent upon us to save Americans, and that is explicitly not a partisan job. I’m ready for that day when it comes, and I hope that there will be others who are able to find the common humanity in our fellow Americans.
In the mean time, enjoy your own weakness — if you can see it.
The best way to save the country is to permanently emasculate the repukes from anything resembling power. Take a look at EVERY major scandal involving the POTUS (and don’t give me any bullshit about a blow job) and a repuke has been behind it, from Grant to Harding to Coolidge to Nixon the Reagan to Chimp.
EVERY SINGLE major scandal – Republicans behind it.
People like you are why the Democrats are perceived as weak. You are not willing to get down and dirty and fight back. You want to take…”the high road.”
You and your high road types are what got us Clusterfuck, as much as the repukes themselves. You make me sick.
Guitar –
It is just Get On The Bandwagon BS. A few people start the Conventional Wisdom that Ford was a DECENT MAN. Lemmings read it, and agree. No thought. (And half of them only know Ford from history books.)
You guys can yap all you like about this “decent man,” but even at the end, he was siding with Bush.
He was and IS a Republican. You can talk all you want about how he was an old Republican, but he was as evil as any Republican.
Thanks Shell, nice to see at least one other person gets it. I would have thought the folks who run the place would, but I see I was mistaken.
Nixon should have died in PRISON!
GPB, one of the nice things about the place is that we are entitled to our own opinions and are not required to subscribe to others’. That includes you and it includes me and Rayne and everyone.
Pleae stop hurling molotov coctails at us because we disagree (although I am closer to your position on Ford).
The “we are entitled to our own opinions” sounds to me like “We at the MSM must be doing something right because everyone hates us!” (In case you forget, that was the MSM’s response to many slamming them for printing OPINION as FACT.)
I say BS. Can you have an OPINION? Sure — even imbeciles do. But to omit FACTS when making that OPINION? Really stupid.
MB: Mr. Rayne threw the first, molotov. I just happen to be better at it and more swilling to get down and dirty. I will say again, with pride and fervor – anyone who thinks you can defeat repukes by bipartisanship, going along to get along, being “nice,” or anything other than down-and-dirty street fighting is delusional. Certifiably insane.
The first time I see Democrats “Swift-boating” a repuke, I will dance with glee. This is a fight for the national soul, and nothing but total victory is acceptable.
If you expect me to make nice, you’re not paying attention. I don’t go after people unless they come after me but if they do, don’t expect me to lay down like a dog.
I will admit that I have not read all the comments, but has anyone brought up that FORD kept some (and brought on other) really evil bastards — that started the ruin of this country? And that includes CHENEY and RUMSFELD. And we mustn’t forget his keeping KISSINGER. Oops! Oh yeag == he made Pappy Bush the head of the CIA too.
So — if you wanna praise Ford, go ahead — but it is pretty dumb to hate Kissinger, Cheney, and Rummy today, while loving Ford. Oh yeah — and Ford was in the Warren Commission, too. (Single Bullet Theory — LOL)
I will admit that I have not read all the comments, but has anyone brought up that FORD kept some (and brought on other) really evil bastards — that started the ruin of this country? And that includes CHENEY and RUMSFELD. And we mustn’t forget his keeping KISSINGER. Oops! Oh yeah == he made Pappy Bush the head of the CIA too.
So — if you wanna praise Ford, go ahead — but it is pretty dumb to hate Kissinger, Cheney, and Rummy today, while loving Ford. Oh yeah — and Ford was in the Warren Commission, too. (Single Bullet Theory — LOL)