CNN Breaking: Former President Ford Admitted to Hospital

[Zomby Woof]

Admitted for shortness of breath at Vail Valley Medical Center in Vail, Colorado. At 93, he is the oldest living ex-president.



I recall Hunter Thompson quoted Ford in his book "Better Than Sex": 'I know I am going to hell, because I pardoned Richard Nixon'.

[unda cova brutha]

1. ho, hum

any interestnig news?

[Skittles]

2. I wish him well

as for his pardoning Nixon: I think he did the right thing - Nixon went down in history for what he did and that was enough. I did not think his family or the country needed the added humilation of further prosecution.

[Zomby Woof]

7. I won't dispute that

I just find the quote interesting... it shows that Ford was conflicted by his decision, even if he did it for the right reasons, as you stated. Today there is not even scant evidence of a conscience in the Oval Office. Ford is almost a nostalgic figure for anyone born before 1970. :-)

My memories of the Ford Administration include: Our family moving overseas to Spain, the Swine Flu vaccine fiasco, the ill-fated and ill-conceived "WIN" buttons, the 1975 recession, the Bicentennial, and those 2 botched assassination attempts, one involving a Manson family member. And the Apollo-Soyuz mission. Ah, detente...

[Skittles]

9. yes, I remember that stuff

I was just 17 when Nixon resigned and the following year I was enlisted :o My main memory of 1975 is the horrific end to that horrific war.....and tell me ZombieWoof if it is not deja vu all over again :(

[Zomby Woof]

17. It is worse now

Yes, the helicopter lifting off the embassy roof in Saigon... I do remember that. My dad is a Vietnam vet (1968, the worst year of the war), and I knew a sad era was at an end, even shy of my 8th birthday.

Although there was a recession then, lines at the gas pump, war in the middle east every few years or so, and a long, long awful war in Vietnam coming to an end... today just seems so much worse. We're going to be in Iraq for even longer than we were in Vietnam, plus we're going to be encouraging the rise of more terrorists, resulting in more acts against Americans at home and abroad... the gap between rich and poor will only get bigger, the rise of greater instability, arms races, genocides, and a debt-based economy holding up like a house of cards. Global warming, environmental degradation... the neocons have eclipsed Nixon, which is quite an amazing feat.

There is a sense of deja vu, but it has a darker feel to it, like it will only get worse.

And I am an optimist!

[Skittles]

21. I would say today is much, much worse

Nixon was an asshole but he wasn't stupid and he was ELECTED. The whole feel of the country now is just wrong, wrong, wrong....it is very depressing

[bemildred]

16. Me too, even though I thought Nixon needed to serve time,

Nobody should be above the law.

[MnFats]

33. ok, wish him well. i do too. but still i believe there are things...

...about what the Nixon gang did that we'll probably never know....stuff far worse than Watergate....and when the pardon was issued, the investigators/prosecutors/congressional committees/muckrakers closed up their books...even John Dean now says a small fraction of all they did was made public...

[napi21]

3. I don't think Ford will be with us much longer. This is the second

time he's been admitted to the hospital in a fairly short time. I think his body is just wearing out.

[displacedtexan]

4. Sad.

Ford was the most righteous Republican they could find
to replace Nixon.

We made fun of his gaffes and naïveté, but he wasn't
really that evil.

And he admitted his mistake in pardoning Nixon.

[bluestateguy]

5. The Nixon pardon was the right move

It would have dragged the Watergate thing out for years and years longer, and the country had been through enough hardship as it was. What's best for America should come first before our desire for vengence against Nixon.

[PCIntern]

6. they pardoned Nixon for the stuff

you will NEVER know about that he and his minions executed...

Including the famous 'Bay of Pigs' issue which inexorably linked nixon to the Kennedy business...

There's much more to this story than Watergate.

[yorgatron]

8. what?

"It would have dragged the Watergate thing out for years and years longer, and the country had been through enough hardship as it was. What's best for America should come first before our desire for vengence against Nixon."

did it ever occur to you that they might have prosecuted some of the same bastards that are haunting us now?

[Virginia Dare]

10. Exactly...

It was the Ford Administration that catapulted Dark Lord Cheney and his good pal Rummy-kins into prominence. In my opnion, there was a whole bunch of dirty little business got swept under the rug in those years.

[Skittles]

11. well, we will never know

like they say, hindsight is 20/20....but I agree that at the time it would have been a bad move for the country

[xxqqqzme]

25. nope it was all swept under the rug

so the country could pretend it never happened. It should have been addressed then & there. Pardoning tricky dick allowed an out-of-control ken starr 2 decades later.

[cosmicdot]

35. agree - I was teaching high school social studies at the time ...

and, I wrote President "Warren Commission" Ford (of course, I didn't address him that way) about what message the pardon sent ... many of the students got to watch the Watergate hearings during class time ... they witnessed 'what did the President know and when did he know it?' ...

essentially, I asked him how do we, as teachers, instill values of fairness, justice and citizenship, etc., when high crimes and misdemeanors (and more) are treated with a slap on the wrist, and a pardon, based on one's position and of 'who one knows' ... compared, say, to someone on Main Street who, without the means and connections, serves jail time for stealing a bag of potato chips; and, carries that stigma around for the rest of their lives ...

Donald Segretti is still practicing law in Newport Beach, CA. He wasn't even debarred.


I said it sent the wrong message.


Politician rhetoric: 'commit the crime serve the time' ... '3 strikes you're out' ...
that's just for the little people, right? The haves not. Justice isn't free. Nixon and the felons that followed in later years didn't have to fill out a job application explaining criminal backgrounds. Jane and John Doe do. Nixon served his time in luxury ... San Clemente with the tax paid upgrades. Made money writing books on the taxpayer dime ... of course, while wallowing in Watergate in his final years. White House felons of the 1980s get TV shows, and are confirmed to serve again in the White House. Jane and John Doe find it difficult to find work after serving time for lesser 'crimes'.

Would we have the level of corruption and evil-doing we're living through now?

Who knows.

But, I would hope that a proper precedent might made the Ollie Norths and Dick Cheneys to, at least,
pause and think twice before violating our Trust, Constitution and laws. As it stands, they don't blink an eye.

For all we know, properly dealing with all things which were "Nixon", we may have ushered in years of Democratic leadership vs. what we've had since the October Surprise of 1980.


What was the lesson of "Watergate"? Who learned what? Did it send a message?

The criminals learned that they can do whatever they want; and, likely gained insight into how to cover their tracks even better. For one, don't use recording devices in the Oval Office. If you do, destroy the evidence. Crank up the paper shredder. Upon reaching the White House, make sure all past records are sealed. If people will believe Rosemary Woods answered a telephone and erased part of a tape, they'll believe that George Bu$h is talking to God. Why even think about trying Bu$h-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rice and Co.? Why drag the country through all of that? Pardon them, and move on. The lessons will have been learned. It won't happen again. Right?

Are we better off because of the pardon?

Based on the corruption, felons, and traitors in the White House we've seen during the Reagan-Poppy-Bu$h** years ... to paraphrase Reagan: are we better off now than we were 30 years ago?

I'd say no. We're still paying the price.


I got sick from the Swine Flu shot. Scary when there was news of people dying from it.
http://www.capitalcentury.com/1976.html




A former President Ford working hard to restore the American public's faith
and confidence in their political system

[PCIntern]

12. Exactly...

the names were always the same...all the 'conspiracy theory' books showd that and they were well-documented. I knew a couple of peripheral participants of some of these issues and the tip of the iceberg was barely seen.

Well, good luck to the country, it's gonna need it.

[Sydnie]

14. Absolutely they would have

Ford should go to hell for that.

[lumberjack_jeff]

24. Disagree

We've become used to avoiding justice because it might be unpleasant.

Sometimes, discomfort should be embraced.

A long line of Republican criminals have avoided accountability because of this precedent.

[Demeter]

30. Still Maybe That Ounce Of Prevention

would have eliminated Rummy, Cheney, Perle, Reagan, Gingrich, and all the gang which has plagued us since. And maybe Clinton wouldn't have sold his soul to the highest bidder.

[Greeby]

13. Wrong Gerald, if you're gonna go to hell for anything

It's for giving these two assholes a job

[Zomby Woof]

19. TRULY

I wonder how many DUers are not aware that Rumsfeld was the Secretary of Defense back then? And Cheney had had only 3 heart attacks by then.

[AspenRose]

26. Sho'nuf got THAT right.

:applause: :applause:

[jonnyblitz]

15. amusing HST comment. nt

[medeak]

18. being discharged MNBC n/t

[Roland99]

20. Well, thankfully he wasn't eaten by a pack of wolves!!

:rofl:

[TallahasseeGrannie]

22. One of my favorite SNL skits!

That inimitable way "Tom Brokaw" said "Gggggerald Ford Dead today at hatey-three. And I'm gay."

Thing is, I forget who did it!

[Roland99]

23. Dana Carvey perhaps?

[zbdent]

27. I would bet that, if Nixon was actually impeached, and all the stuff

came out that we are not aware of, the Republican party would be just a footnote in history ...

Once I found out that Ford was on the Warren Commission, it made more sense to me how he "earned" the VP slot ... my tinfoil hat reads that Ford helped hide Nixon's fingerprints ...

[yardwork]

28. Ford was Speaker of the House, so he was a logical choice for VP

However, it was a bad mistake to pardon Nixon and drop the whole investigation. A bad, bad mistake and the chicken-hawks (like those pictured above) have come to haunt us.

We need to remember that if we ever get control of the country back in the hands of the people. There will be calls to "forgive and forget" but who knows what kinds of evil young minds are percolating right now in the W administration?

[Zomby Woof]

29. He was NOT the Speaker

He was the House Minority Leader.

[onenote]

36. which made him the logical choice

[aquart]

31. Well, at least he's prepared.

[CGrantt57]

32. He may be the last honest, decent Republican.

God bless, Jerry.

You're one of the good guys.

[keroro gunsou]

34. last good republican

definately.

he came through milwaukee a few years ago... how many i can't recall, for a golf tournament for charity, the vince lombardi classic, i think....

my dad got to meet him and chat with him, very nice midwestern guy, he's from michigan after all.

the only thing bad my dad said about him was he wasn't a packer fan... oh well, no one's perfect.

shame i never got to meet him... he reminds me of both my grandfathers....

as to the nixon pardon, right thing at the time, the country had bigger fish to fry, though the universal law of unforseen and unintended consequences was set in motion...

[daleo]

37. Maybe if he wouldn't have pardoned Nixon

The rot wouldn't have gotten as deep as it has in the Republican Party, and the world wouldn't be wracked with war.