JERRY FORD IS DEAD

Basically there's nothing in Ken's timely coverage of the passing of Jerry Ford I disagree with. I knew DWT should say something about it and I was delighted to wake up this morning and see he had and that I didn't have to. What does bother me though, is the Mary Poppins TV coverage I've seen today. In fact, it's all so patently fake and full of crap that it makes me want to throw up. Hat tip to Atrios this morning for pointing out the September 23, 1974 Time cover story on the anger generated by Ford's precipitate pardon of Nixon.

We have to think carefully about the role of pardons since this is going to be a very big deal as more and more Republican elected officials and operatives are exposed for their gross criminal behavior over the last 6 years, possibly even the nitwit-in-chief himself. Reading the 32 year old Time story helps one understand how the DC Establishment rallies round its own and covers for even the worst examples of treason against our Nation.

Throughout the most painful week of Gerald Ford's fledgling presidency, public protest continued to batter the White House. Far from easing after the first shock of Ford's precipitate pardon of Richard Nixon for any and all federal crimes committed during his presidency, the controversy grew. It was fed partly by Ford's refusal to explain further his mysterious reversal on his Executive intervention, partly by White House fumbling on whether all the other Watergate offenders might also be pardoned. Ford's inexperienced aides-- almost all of whom had opposed the timing of the pardon-- were left scrambling futilely to justify the President's action.

Squandered Trust. There was as yet no evidence that Ford's motives were other than high-minded and merciful. Indeed, some of the criticisms of his action were overwrought and hysterical. Suggestions that justice was dead in the U.S. or that Ford's Administration had been irrevocably compromised were exaggerations. Nevertheless, Ford's first major decision raised disturbing questions about his judgment and his leadership capabilities, and called into question his competence. He had apparently needlessly, even recklessly, squandered some of that precious public trust that is so vital to every President. By associating himself so personally with the welfare of his discredited predecessor, he had allowed himself to be tainted by Watergate-- a national scandal that the courts, prosecutors and Congress had labored so long and effectively to expose and resolve.

Thus, barely a month into his presidency, Gerald Ford found himself jeered by a crowd of pardon protesters outside a hotel in Pittsburgh, where he addressed a conference on urban transportation. They waved signs bearing such taunts as THE COUNTRY WON'T STAND FOR IT-- a mockery of Ford's declaration about a pardon for Nixon, which Ford made during the Senate hearings to confirm him as Vice President. In an otherwise pleasant outing to help dedicate a World Golf Hall of Fame in Pinehurst, N.C., Ford faced more banners: IS NIXON ABOVE THE LAW? and JAIL CROOKS, NOT RESISTERS.

Outside the White House, some 250 pickets from George Washington University lofted a bedsheet with the words PROMISE ME PARDON AND I'LL MAKE YOU PRESIDENT-- a reference to a widespread cynical suspicion that Nixon as President had exacted a pledge of a pardon from Ford before naming him Vice President and putting him in the line of succession.

That week Ford's Gallup rating dropped by 20 points. Judges, lawyers, political scientists and legal scholars felt the pardon was an arbitrary assault on the basic principles of Justice. "By a vote of 347 to 169, the California State Bar Association denounced the pardon as violating the tenet 'that all persons stand equal before the law' and claimed that it threatened to 'undermine' the 'American system of justice.' Leaders of the City Bar Association of New York charged that Ford had acted 'prematurely and unwisely' and bluntly urged him to 'permit the administration of justice to proceed without further hindrance.'"

Politically, the pardon revived Watergate as an issue, permanently ruined Ford's pubic persona dooming his chances for re-election, and generally helped Democrats and hurt Republicans. "Undermined, too, was the pleasant notion that Ford, a direct, uncomplicated Midwesterner who used to prepare his own breakfast, is wholly unlike those crafty politicians who maneuver for personal prestige and luxuries during careers on either coast. Columnist George Will thus notes the death of the 'English Muffin Theory of History... that a President who toasts his own English muffins for breakfast is somehow different from the general cut of politicians.' Was Ford just another devious politician? Particularly among the young, the answer was a disquietingly prevalent yes."

Bringing some reality to the orgy of fake national grieving led by ravings-hungry news networks and President Chimpy, was a note I got today from distinguished Law Professor Michael Froomkin: "The line I recall best about Ford while he was President was that if he happened to go outside the White House and found a cold child living on the street, Ford would literally give that child the shirt off his own back-- then go back into the White House and veto a child care bill."


UPDATE: THE #1 THING HE DID WAS PARDON NIXON

Taylor Marsh and some of my other friends are far less forgiving than Ken. Jim summed it up even more colorfully in a letter he just wrote me:

Gerald Ford?

Selected by the GOP power brokers to be appointed Vice President so he could later pardon Richard Nixon.

Played too much football with his helmet off (LBJ).

Spare us the the 'mournful nation' bullshit.

Gerald Ford trivia question:

Q.Who were Gerald Ford's two Chiefs of Staff as president?

A. Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld.