Bush: Ford helped heal divided nation

[Rose Siding]

CRAWFORD, Texas — President Bush on Wednesday remembered former President Gerald Ford as a "man of complete integrity who led our country with common sense and kind instincts" and helped restore faith in the presidency after the Watergate scandal......

Bush, who is spending the week at his Texas ranch, made his statement before sunrise inside a hangar at a helipad outlined in blue-green landing lights. Dawn was breaking over the ranch after he finished expressing his sadness over Ford's death.
...
Vice President Dick Cheney served as Ford's chief of staff, while just departed Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld served Ford in the same job.

Cheney called Ford a "dear friend and mentor" and hailed his former boss' role in bringing the nation out of what the vice president called the "greatest constitutional crisis since the Civil War."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/APWires/headlines/D8M981U00.html

[newscott]

1. Ford made it possible for a clown like * to get in the White House

Thanks a lot Gerry!

[Rose Siding]

3. He also greased the skids for Dick and Don

Ger even gave Don the Medal of Freedom -Kissinger, too.

[Tellurian]

11. And the reason he lost his WH bid..

It can't be TRUE, he hadn't agreed to the pardons..
Unless, by some techinal play on words, others did it for him.

[sofa king]

18. He also put Poppy on ice for four years.

He wasn't qualified for the job, but Rumsfeld felt that if George H. W. was Director of the CIA he wouldn't be able to run for President in 1976. So he had Gerry nominate Bush the Smarter for the CIA and secured the nomination for Gerry himself.

[Lost4words]

2. Hey now lets not forget what great material he provided Chevy Chase!

but as for uniting the country, no way, I was there.

[modrepub]

16. So how will he be remembered?

For his address announcing he pardoned Nixon or him falling down the steps of Air Force One???

[Lost4words]

32. For his address announcing he pardoned Nixon, of course!

crime upsets me more than comedy, for what its worth.
8643

[ashling]

4. What would * know about healing ?

He's done nothing but wreck, dismember, and murder. :puke:

[AlwaysQuestion]

27. Right on!

I'm definitely with you.....like who gives a damn what the punk has to say. I can't watch or listen to him or any member of his cabal, just as I can't listen to or watch Harper. Tuning these sub-humans out is just my way of trying to retain some semblance of sanity.

[Slyder]

5. Bless you, Gerald Ford

As a Democrat, I respected Gerald Ford. He was a man of integrity and honesty. His wife Betty was also an example to the nation, dealing publicly and boldly with addiction and cancer. His decision to pardon Nixon saved the nation from a huge ordeal that would have had major repercussions down to today. Bush had nothing to do with Ford or his administration. Cheney and Rumsfeld were cutting their political teeth during the Ford and Nixon Administrations, it is true, but they would have likely been doing that no matter who succeeded Nixon. I wish you God speed, President Ford.

[Lost4words]

9. Ask anyone whos family was killed by a drunk driver if pardoning

the drunk would help the healing process.

[modrepub]

12. I don't mind kind words

upon someone's death (for the most part). Nixon's pardon did put to rest what would have been an ugly process with the real chance that a former president could have gone to jail. What Ford's pardon did prevent was a full accounting of what happened (however ugly it would have been). This was something Nixon didn't have the guts to do himself. I can't help but think Ford's actions only opened the door for later Presidents to pardon people who may have embarrassed them or lead to possible criminal charges against them (see Bush Sr. and Reagan for those scenarios).

Say kind things about the person, but don't whitewash their mistakes. Calling the pardon "what the nation needed at the time" belittles the implications the act would have over time. I can like the man but what he did was un-excusable in my mind and pissed a lot of people off at the time.

[Lost4words]

14. Well said, I think its generally what most thinkers are feeling today.

And exactly what I felt at the time and still feel today.

[TankLV]

25. BULLSHIT! His desicion to pardon DID give us repurcussions to this day...

it enabled the CRIMINALS in THIS misadministration to come to power and do the damage they did...

NO, we COULD and WOULD have "survived" the "ordeal" of trial and PUNISHMENT of the repuke CRIMINALS!

We "survivived" the repuke witch hunt for Clinton, after all. THAT proves "we" would have survived and PROSPERED and BEEN BETTER OFF FOR IT if the investigations, trial and PUNISHMENT enshewed...

[donheld]

29. Do some research on East Timor

then tell me how wonderful.

[MidwestTransplant]

6. Ah a uniter and not a divider..much more so than Jr.

[Lost4words]

10. You cant compare * to Jerry Ford, Ford was a human being!

Look at the closeness of his family, that does not just happen. I believe he was a genuinely good person. He made one Big mistake that would come back to haunt us.

RIP President FORD, deep condolences to his loved ones.

[MidwestTransplant]

23. I wasn't saying they were similar.

[Lost4words]

34. My Bad,... sorry!

It seems that I typed first and asked questions later.

But while I believe Gerald Ford was a basically a good person +/-, I dont think pardoning Nixon united anybody, and from my point of view, it only increased the divide. It did get the GOP off the Hot Seat and opened the doors to the simpleton occupying the WH today.

Particularly after the Impeachment of Clinton over a mutually consensual sex act between adults.

Nixon got a walk for massive crimes but the law and order repukes impeach Clinton over covering up an embarrassing lapse of judgment. Basically a personal matter between Bill, Monica and Hillery.

But how long were we un-united by this unseemly spectacle hoisted upon us by the neocon traitors rather than doing the nations business. Not jobs for Americans, not security, nothing was more important to these phony moralists than getting Bill, and for the life of me I dont know why as Bill Clinton was esentially a moderate repuke in Democrat clothing.

Too GD long IMHO.

8643

[Solly Mack]

7. uh..uh...lololololol

Yeah, right. Because a very much divided present day America just got that way in the last few years.


Nothing from the past ever has any bearing on the future...oh nooooo....never - (echoing derision)

"November 4, 1975
In what the press dubs the “Halloween Massacre,” President Ford orders a reorganization of his cabinet. He names Donald Rumsfeld as Defense Secretary, Elliot Richardson as Commerce Secretary, George HW Bush as CIA Director (AND Ambassador to China)
, and Richard Cheney as White House Chief of Staff. Henry Kissinger remains Secretary of State; however, he turns over his duties as National Security Advisor to Brent Scowcroft. Under pressure from Republican Party Conservatives, Vice-President Nelson Rockefeller withdraws his name from consideration as Ford’s 1976 running mate."

http://www.ford.utexas.edu/grf/timeline.asp

[onehandle]

8. Onehandle: Who cares what you assholes think? nt

[Lost4words]

13. Take your gutter mouth to the land of losers, I care what people think.

Onehandle climbs to the top of a large pedistel and Shouts, I am pompous pilot!

[Dr Fate]

20. I believe he was refering to Bush and the media- and I heartily agree w/ him. n/t

n/t

[Lost4words]

31. I reread the post, it didnt read that way to me and no sign of sarcasm!

so I stand by my reply Dr.

[Felix Mala]

15. Worst thing about this: another opportunity for The Smirker to puff himself

up and act like he's doing something important and (pause) his-tor'cal. He'll even get to wear his "important" suit that day. I can already see the National Cathedral with the DC-VIP's filing in and His Puffiness doing that weird open fingered, lap-wave thing he does. And then he stands up, walks to the altar and starts stumbling over the eulogy. I don't want to see that...

[opihimoimoi]

17. More EMPTY/MANUTIAE LANGUAGE CRAP from the Dufus in Charge

Who cares what the hell he sez these days??? Its all BS mutterings from an empty well...no water, no beef, no nothin of substance...never was...

That boy don't hunt, don't talk, and don't think...forget about Leading this Nation....he don't lead too...a loser if there ever was...

and the GOP who put him there...? they be Losers too.

[pitohui]

19. that's odd, because the nation is more divided than ever

funny definition of "healing" if you ask me

[Supersedeas]

22. you would think that IRONY would slap the Frat Boy in the face from time to time

[daleo]

21. An honest man who pardoned a criminal

They keep saying that was just what the country needed at the time. Think about that.

[DrZeeLit]

30. Mmm, every time I hear that... I think... Scooter Libby et al. Don't you? n/t

[TankLV]

24. "...heh heh heh..."

Fuck anything that WAR CRIMINAL has to say...

He's probably whistling past the graveyard anyway - hoping for things to come when it's HIS turn in the Hague...

[lumpy]

26. Who is going to restore faith in th presidency after

the the Bush scandals?
On another note, who really believes Ford healed this divided nation?

[Vinca]

28. If Nixon had not been pardoned and was left to face the consequences,

would this administration be as emboldened as it is? We've got a little dictator to contend with who believes he's above the law. I wonder why.

[Bridget Burke]

33. After Nixon & Bush The Smarter's cronies tore it apart....

"Healing" is not the right word. A wound that deep needs more than a bandaid. The Festering came to a head under Reagan & again under Bush the Lesser.

From Hunter S Thompson: Richard Nixon is gone now and I am poorer for it. He was the real thing--a political monster straight out of Grendel and a very dangerous enemy. He could shake your hand and stab you in the back at the same time. He lied to his friends and betrayed the trust of his family.

Not even Gerald Ford, the unhappy ex-president who pardoned Nixon and kept him out of prison, was immune to the evil fallout. Ford, who believes strongly in Heaven and Hell, has told more than one of his celebrity golf partners that I know I will go to hell, because I pardoned Richard Nixon."

www.counterpunch.org/thompson02212005.html

Odd that the talking heads keep calling Ford "decent." Faint praise--but he was more decent than the current gang, who've made some of us miss Nixon.

Ford lived a long life & had many health problems. His death was neither a surprise nor a bad thing--for him or for his family. But it's a pity the story will drive Iraq out of the news & give Bush more time to devise his cunning plan.

[Conscious Confucius]

35. Strange to hear Bush speak of healing divided nations...

seeing as he knows nothing of the concept.

[truthisfreedom]

36. And "bush helped sicken and divide nation."

So whatever, mr. pretzeldunt.