I grew up just outside Grand Rapids and always admired Gerald Ford. At the time he pardoned Nixon I felt it was the best thing for the country. I have since changed my mind about that, but I have never doubted that Ford believed it, and that he acted out of conviction. Although I disagreed with some of his political positions I voted for him because of that honesty and courage. I cannot think of any leading political figure, of either party, whom I could trust so far today. What a sad commentary.
Godspeed, President Ford.
Posted by clio at December 27, 2006 12:57 AMOur history might have been different if he hadn't pardoned Nixon. Ford was a fine person, to be sure, but fine people make grievous errors too. Perhaps a history of Presidential accountability might have dampened Bush and Cheney's enthusiasm for their Oil War...
Posted by Mickey at December 27, 2006 01:37 AMWhat a great country we live in. You can grow up to be president without one person voting for you.
Or you can steal two elections and grow up to be king with a complicit congress looking on.
I was in England when Jerry Stairwalker pardoned the 5 o'clock shadow and I had to endure alot of laughter on what a corrupt country America was.
You might not be so easy on him if you invested alot of passionate shoe leather working for the Committee to Impeach the President.
If Nixon had gone to trial, it might have sent a message to future naughty presidents to limit their unconstitutional activities.
Posted by TIKI AL at December 27, 2006 01:47 AMIf you're superstious, then deaths come in threes:
1.) James Brown
2.) Gerald Ford
3.) ???
Ford was a decent and honest man, that's for sure. However, I did not agree with his pardon of Richard Milhous Nixon. Although he thought it would help heal the Nation after Watergate, millions of people were irate, including me. By today's standards, Tricky Dick would have finished his term as POTUS.
Posted by Judith at December 27, 2006 03:04 AMI agree that Nixon's trial would have prevented future grief which is one reason I changed my mind about Ford's pardon. I have also come to believe that the country could have withstood a trial, which at the time was thought problematic.
Hindsight is always easier. Ford didn't have that luxury. At the time the pardon, even though disappointing, was a great relief. I disagree that it was corrupt. The pardon may have been a wrong decision, but it was an honest decision. Ford stood by it to the end, and spoke openly of it whenever asked about it.
Ford was warned that a pardon would hurt his election chances, but went ahead anyway. Can you imagine any of the current crop of candidates doing such a thing? Anyone with real convictions is savaged by opponents. Candidacies do not survive. Ford had that happen too with allegations of a quid pro quo deal.
Ford received a Profile in Courage Award for the pardon in 2001. Whatever the unintended consequences of the pardon, there are still many people who believe that it was the right thing for the time. Obviously Ford did also and was willing to pay whatever personal price was required.
To put the commonweal above personal advancement is admirable. When the choice seemed clear President Ford did that.
Posted by clio at December 27, 2006 03:07 AMAlthough he thought it would help heal the Nation after Watergate, millions of people were irate, including me.
Presidents pardon thugs, drug dealers and even former presidents who break the law and violate the US Constitution.
Perhaps, it's the very right to pardon that needs to be revisited and removed?
I mean, does anyone in their right mind not think Little Boots will parson Lewis "Scooter" Libby?
Posted by Christopher at December 27, 2006 03:20 AMJust what is the purpose of the pardon? Personally, I don't think any president should have the ability to pardon anyone.
At the time, I remember being so angry, because after going through all the trauma for months, Nixon just gets on a plane and flys into the sunset.
Posted by Judith at December 27, 2006 03:39 AMFor me, the Presidential Pardon is just another version of men behaving badly.
Posted by Christopher at December 27, 2006 03:44 AMWhile the Bushs were celebrating Christmas at Camp David, as part of a family gift name drawing, the Bushes donated mosquito nets in the name of former President George H.W. Bush through Malarianomore.org, a mission set up to urge individuals, organizations and institutions to protect families from malaria. Are you fucking kidding me? Of all the charities that need donations, the Malaria mission? This must be a joke.
By-the-way, you will be glad to know that Bush is in Crawford "rethinking" the Iraq course. I can hardly wait to see what his rethinking comes up with.
Posted by Judith at December 27, 2006 03:57 AMI would enjoy seeing what percentage of their income the Bush clan donate to charity each year from the $1 billion dollar family fortune?
I bet its' less than 100th of 1%. Compassionate conservatism at it's finest.
Posted by Christopher at December 27, 2006 04:08 AMGood article:
The Buck Stops Everywhere by Jane Smiley.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-smiley/the-buck-stops-everywhere_b_37140.html
Also, at midnight on Dec. 31, hundreds of millions of pages of secret documents will be instantly declassified, including many F.B.I. cold war files on investigations of people suspected of being Communist sympathizers. After years of extensions sought by federal agencies behaving like college students facing a term paper, the end of 2006 means the government's first automatic declassification of records. (From HuffingtonPost)
Posted by Judith at December 27, 2006 04:12 AMChristopher, the Bushs do not donate money to any charities, unless of course, it helps them financially. This is not a giving family. Quite frankly, I don't believe they gave any money to the Malarie Mission either, unless the old man set-up the Foundation, which then means the money never left the family.
Posted by Judith at December 27, 2006 04:17 AMThe declassification of documents. Does that mean the Kennedy assasination papers which were supposed to be released 25 years after his death, but never were?
Posted by Judith at December 27, 2006 04:19 AMJudith,
Naturally. The Bush clan are very definition of thugs.
BTW, Gerald Ford hailed from, guess where? Yale!
A fellow skull and bonesman, who cherished Cheney, Rumsfeld and Poppy Bush and was an enthusiastic supporter of Little Boots' Iraq war.
Posted by Christopher at December 27, 2006 04:28 AMAlex Halfwit on MSNBC just said (with the strains of the music from the West Wing playing behind her,):
"We're awaiting a statement in about 40 minutes from President Bush from Crawford on the passing of Gerald Ford..."
Yeah right. I'm sure it takes at least 40 minutes to sober Bush up enough to sit upright in a chair.
Posted by Christopher at December 27, 2006 04:34 AMWhy, Judith, you sound like a confirmed cynic to me.
I like that in a person.
(Not to mention it's the only sane attitude to have when Clan Bush is around.)
Yawn. Shift ending. Must tie up loose ends.
'Night all
Enjoyed comments. Food for thought.
Read CHINA WHITE about the increase of heroin in the US (second article down). Now, I'm not saying the Government is involved in drugs, but.......
According to a Drug Enforcement Administration report obtained by The Times, Afghanistan's poppy fields have become the fastest-growing source of heroin in the United States. Its share of the U.S. market doubled from 7% in 2001, the year U.S. forces overthrew the Taliban, to 14% in 2004, the latest year studied. Another DEA report, released in October, said the 14% actually could be significantly higher.
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/
Posted by Judith at December 27, 2006 04:42 AMWhat I always see missed about Ford is how he tried to impeach Supreme
Court Justice William Douglas when Ford was a member of the House.
Something about Douglas' book deal and his very young wife or lady
friend, but I don't recall the details. It never got anywhere, but it
is a fact that Ford made some serious moves to impeach Douglas, one of
the finest members of the Supreme Court. It seems the Republicans have
had a fixation about the court, I guess since the days when FDR tried
to pack it. They also could never get over Earl Warren, former
Republican governor of California.
Anyway, this cheap shot on Douglas and Ford's pardon of the felon
Nixon, is what I will always remember Gerald Ford for, no matter how
genial he was.
Clio, cynic? More like realistic, don't ya think? Actually, I remember the moment I turned cynic. It was when Kennedy was murdered. I never trusted our Government after that event, because they never told the truth nor sought the truth. That event taught me to question everyone and everything.
Posted by Judith at December 27, 2006 04:49 AMSkull and Bones, Christopher? Well, well. Funny how that secret society keeps popping up in our political system, isn't it?
Posted by Judith at December 27, 2006 04:52 AMSkull and Bones, Christopher? Well, well. Funny how that secret society keeps popping up in our political system, isn't it?
Yep. John Kerry too.
They're like the mob.
Posted by Christopher at December 27, 2006 05:03 AMThe only decent thing about Gerry Ford was his wife, whose hatred and resentment for her husband drove her to drink. She started the rehab clinic which was meant to help drunks everywhere but only helped drunks with money but the worst monied drunks never made the clinic, such as Bush, Cheney, the twins etc.
I will never forget when that shit pardoned Nixon; we thought the USA could never get lower. We were so innocent!
And Ticki Al, the Brits have no business condemning us in any way, shape or form as corrupt.
At least Americans use deordorant.
Posted by Mal Feasance at December 27, 2006 05:15 AMThe only decent thing about Gerry Ford was his wife, whose hatred and resentment for her husband drove her to drink. She started the rehab clinic which was meant to help drunks everywhere but only helped drunks with money but the worst monied drunks never made the clinic, such as Bush, Cheney, the twins etc.
I will never forget when that shit pardoned Nixon; we thought the USA could never get lower. We were so innocent!
And Ticki Al, the Brits have no business condemning us in any way, shape or form as corrupt.
At least Americans use deodorant.
Posted by Mal Feasance at December 27, 2006 05:15 AMWhat amazes and amuses me is Gerald Ford has a presidential library.
He never ran for office, and he only served some 850 days before Carter defeated him, and his claim to fame is pardoning a crook, he has his own library.
I think all of us should have a library.
Posted by Christopher at December 27, 2006 05:40 AMLyndon said he thought Gerry played a few too many downs without his helmet on. I think Lyndon also said that Gerry had trouble walking and chewing gum at the same time.
Ford may have been a decent man, but the pardon was/is a disaster. He was head and shoulders above Spiro Agnew, so that was a good move.
I don't like presidential pardons of politicians - ala Nixon by Ford, or Marc Rich by Clinton, or Weinberger, Abrams, et al by George H. Bush. No accountability for misdeeds if there are no trials possible. You end up with an indicted person like Abrams staying in positions of influence and power. Who needs that? Do we have a shortage of virtuous men and women of all political stripes?
Posted by angel at December 27, 2006 06:41 AMthis morning the MSM is making ford sound like some kind of hero. I was sick last night when people are talking about the good he did, but this? making him out to be anything but an incompetent boob or a criminal is hilarious. Does no one writing news today even remember this guy? it does not appear so.
this guy replaced a crook, pardoned a crook, and sat quietly while other war criminals dictated his policy to him. You may recognize his most important advisers. cheney and rummy. he enabled them, he was so stupid he listed to them.
a legacy of organized crime for america.
betty was ok though, at least she brought drug addiction for white collar rich people out in the main stream and made it popular to be de toxed. she made a lot of money from suffering, eh?
Christopher: on Libby's pardon, for Bush to pardon Libby he would have to admit that Libby did something wrong. And if Lynne Cheney's remarks last week that the indictments on Libby were a sad commentary on our Justice Dept, are any indication, Bush ain't going there.
Posted by mainsailset at December 27, 2006 08:09 AMInsider stock tip: Buy Bushco Mosquito Netting, Inc.
"And Ticki Al, the Brits have no business condemning us in any way, shape or form as corrupt."
...I haven't had ticks since my yute when we were caught in the girlscout's tent and drummed out of the boyscouts.
Ford should be impeached posthumously not only for the pardon, but for appointing Cheney as his White House Chief of Staff.
Posted by TIKI AL at December 27, 2006 08:12 AMTIKI AL - does Bushco Mosquito Netting Inc also sell butterfly nets? So much easier to use if the target is mobile.
Posted by mainsailset at December 27, 2006 08:24 AM"Insider stock tip: Buy Bushco Mosquito Netting, Inc."
Well TIKI AL, the netting will go far to help in the fight against malaria. I worry every night that I am going to get malaria, so the netting will help ease my pain and fear. God bless the Bushs. They are fighting the malaria epidemic.
Posted by Judith at December 27, 2006 08:46 AMBy-the-way TIKI AL, did you read my post where hell will not want you?
Posted by Judith at December 27, 2006 08:49 AMGood to see everybody has their thinking caps on! I couldn't help but think as CNBC was extolling Ford and his legacy, how putting the long national nightmare (Nixon presidency? Nixon political career? The two years we'd had of Watergate as opposed to, oh, I don't know, ten years of death and destruction in Vietnam?) behind us only served to cover up the bleeding sore of republican malfeasance, and of course, allowed it to continue to happen.
So who did benefit from the pardon, exactly?
(sorry for the shameless blogwhoring, I'll never do it again, I hope)
Posted by Duckman GR at December 27, 2006 08:52 AMSince Repubs have got so many proposed amendments to the Constitution, I don't see why we don't get into the game, too.
But our amendments should be to remove anti-democratic elements from the document: abolish the president's power to pardon and abolish the electoral college so that the president is popularly elected.
The pardon power has acquired such a bad name in the past 35 years (paging Mr. Ford....) I can't imagine why we retain it any longer. It's used for nothing but executive aggrandizement and undermining accountability and the rule of law.
Let the "conservative" shitbrains defend these crappy provisions.
Posted by euzoius at December 27, 2006 09:17 AM"By-the-way TIKI AL, did you read my post where hell will not want you?"
Yes, thanks, been the story of my life, I just don't fit in anywhere. Et Tu, Hell?
Great article, Mallard-biped, thanks for the lap-dancer link. Nice site.
After helping to get Nixon impeached, I feel Jerry Edsel stabbed me in the back.
Posted by TIKI AL at December 27, 2006 09:29 AMAnd who can forget dear President Ford rejecting federal aid to the then-bankrupt New York City?
The messagae was: FORD TO NEW YORK: DROP DEAD!
Posted by Christopher at December 27, 2006 09:48 AM(sorry for the shameless blogwhoring, I'll never do it again, I hope)
Gosh, I hope you don't try to keep that promise, duckman.
So who profited? That is a fine question to ask. And that's a right fair answer you gave.
Posted by Mary at December 27, 2006 10:36 AMGolf courses everywhere are safer today!
Rest in Peace Mister President.
Posted by snark at December 27, 2006 11:30 AM"only served to cover up the bleeding sore of republican malfeasance, and of course, allowed it to continue to happen."
Duckman, and it will happen again, unless we impeach GWB. As it stands now, nothing is impeachable, (unless it's lying about a BJ). The barndoor, so to speak, is wide open for a repeat of the past six years.
Remeber this one: Jerry Ford is so clumsy, he not only can't walk and chew gum at the same time, but trips on the pattern in the lanoleum.
Posted by Judith at December 27, 2006 11:48 AMSay what you will, but I still feel that Ford was a decent man (think Bush&Co. here).
Posted by Judith at December 27, 2006 11:50 AMI always thought Ford got the pResidency so he could pardon Nixon, not help heal a Nation. He was also on The Warren Commission.
Posted by Seven of Six at December 27, 2006 12:45 PMDuckman, I second Mary's admonition! Keep 'em coming.
And where have you been, snark? Not even a hello or by-your-leave! Sheesh.
Posted by iamcoyote at December 27, 2006 01:18 PM