Ford's Staff: Cheney, Rummy, & Jim Baker ---pix--->>>

[Stephanie]

Little did Ford know, he was planting the seeds for our current long national nightmare.





Former U.S. President Gerald R. Ford talks with his Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld (L)
and Rumsfeld's assistant Richard Cheney (R) in the Oval Office of the White House in
Washington in this April 28, 1975 file photo. Ford, who took office from an embattled
Richard M. Nixon, has died, according to a statement from his widow on December 26, 2006.
EDITORIAL USE ONLY REUTERS/Courtesy Gerald R. Ford Library/David Hume Kennerly/
White House Photograph/Handout (UNITED STATES) Email Photo Print Photo

http: //news.yahoo.com/photo/061227/ids_photos_ts/r3029671097.jpg




President Gerald Ford, right, gestures Aug. 26,1976 as he introduced his campaign team to
newsmen in Vail, Colo. At left, is Richard Cheney, White House chief of staff, and center,
is Jim Baker, new chairman of the Ford election committee. Gerald R. Ford, who picked up
the pieces of Richard Nixon's scandal-shattered White House as the 38th and only unelected
president in America's history, has died, his wife, Betty, said Tuesday Dec. 26, 2006.
He was 93. (AP Photo)

http://news.yahoo.com/photo/061227/480/ny16112270635




President Gerald Ford meets with Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney in the
Oval Office. April 22, 1975. Former President Gerald R. Ford, who declared 'Our long
national nightmare is over' as he replaced Richard Nixon but may have doomed his own
chances of election by pardoning his disgraced predecessor, has died Tuesday Dec. 26, 2006.
He was 93. (AP Photo/WHITE HOUSE PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY GERALD R. FORD LIBRARY)

http://news.yahoo.com/photo/061227/480/ny18312271226

[hippiechick]

1. Well, if nothing else ....

... maybe all the Ford-hoopla will open a few sheeple's eyes to just how far back Dick and Rummy go in the Dirty Tricks Brigade and just exactly where they cut their political teeth.

Blatantly tie them to the debacle that was Watergate? NIIIIIIICE. :applause:

Just sucks that it took this long for it to surface.

[madeline_con]

13. It's not as if it's just come to light.

:shrug:

[hippiechick]

26. To us maybe not ... but to some loyal Faux News viewers ...

..... jus' sayin' ....

[thingfisher]

24. The Ford hoopla on the MSM will be nothing but bland plattitudes

to the man who brought "healing" to America, bla, blah, blah....

[AzDar]

2. We can now (as of 2000) boast of 2 'un-elected' Presidents.

edited to add: Great work, Stephanie!

[Greeby]

3. Aod don't forget Poppy Bush as Director of CIA

Brought in after previous Director William Colby grew a conscience and was telling all to the Church Committee.
If it weren't for Ford, Poppy probably would have ended up on the scrapheap with all the other Cold Warriors

[partylessinOhio]

4. We must clear ALL of the Repuglican rats out of our government.

They have been there too long and have done too much damage to give them even another minute.

[asjr]

5. I think you are correct in Ford not

knowing what would happen. Ford, in my estimation, was the last True Republican. He was the last in the party that had meaning. It is now just the Party of Mean. I always got the feeling he did not really want to be president.

[NMDemDist2]

6. isn't it amazing how Cheney doesn't even look like the same person?

Rummy hasn't changed, but Cheney looks totally different

Guess that's the different between being pure evil as opposed to just stone crazy eh?

[tblue37]

28. I keep staring at that picture and wondering where his

now permanent sneer came from. I wonder whether he migth have had a small stroke or Bell's Palsy, or some other problem that paralyzed muscles on one side of his face.

On the other hand, he does already have that evil Mr. Burns handwringing thing going on in the seated picture.

[Joanne98]

7. Ford was the seed planter for all the evil to come....

[BuyingThyme]

19. Actually, it was Rumsfeld.

[DoYouEverWonder]

21. Mr Nice Guy went and installed

all of Poppy Bush's pals in key positions in his administration. This is the same Mr Nice Guy who helped cover up the Kennedy assasination and let Nixon off the hook.

Maybe Mr. Nice Guy wasn't so nice after all?

[thingfisher]

22. Yes indeed ..

There is a lot of hidden history to be revealed someday about this bunch. Dispite his all American boy image one needs to be realistic and look at who all his buddied were. Oh my, same old BFFE at the mid point of their skullduggery! Geral Ford did yeoman service for the cabl by pardoning Nixon thus keeping the rest of the BFFE safe out of the public eye! I'm certain that his pardon had a lot to do with the JFK affair, which may have been a big factoe in the whole Watergate break in.
Will we ever know the truth about all this shit!

[Gelliebeans]

8. What is it

the deal with Dick's hair?

[Sal Minella]

9. In that first pic -- from the facial expressions on all three, I assume

Cheney has just told a joke about eating live babies?

[donsu]

10. once snake Cheney and arrogant Rummy got ahold of Ford he turned

into a coward and did whatever they wanted

[NNN0LHI]

11. Looks like Ford was running a school for War Criminals during his term n/t

[EFerrari]

12. Speaking of national nightmares, my son gave this clock to me

during the War on Christmas:

http://www.nationalnightmare.com/

[starroute]

14. There's a great Rolling Stone article from 2004...

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/6450422/the_curse_of_dick_cheney/

When Gerald Ford succeeded to the presidency, he needed experienced loyalists by his side who were untainted by the Nixon scandal, so he named Rumsfeld his chief of staff. Rumsfeld brought Cheney right along with him into the Oval Office.

The period between August 1974 and November 1976, when Ford lost the election to Jimmy Carter, is essential to understanding George W. Bush's disastrous misjudgments -- and Dick Cheney's role in them. In both cases, Cheney and Rumsfeld played the key role in turning opportunity into chaos. Ford, like Bush later, hadn't been elected president. As he entered office, he was overshadowed by a secretary of state (Kissinger then, Powell later) who was considered incontestably his better. Ford was caught as flat-footed by the fall of Saigon in April 1975 as Bush was by the September 2001 attacks. A better president, with more astute advisers, might have arranged a more orderly ending to the long and divisive war. But instead of heeding the country's desire for honesty and reconciliation, Rumsfeld and Cheney convinced Ford that the way to turn himself into a real president was to stir up crises in international relations while lurching to the right in domestic politics.

Having turned Ford into their instrument, Rumsfeld and Cheney staged a palace coup. They pushed Ford to fire Defense Secretary James Schlesinger, tell Vice President Nelson Rockefeller to look for another job and remove Henry Kissinger from his post as national security adviser. Rumsfeld was named secretary of defense, and Cheney became chief of staff to the president. The Yale dropout and draft dodger was, at the age of thirty-four, the second-most-powerful man in the White House.

As the 1976 election approached, Rumsfeld and Cheney used the immense powers they had arrogated to themselves to persuade Ford to scuttle the Salt II treaty on nuclear-arms control. The move helped Ford turn back Reagan's challenge for the party's nomination -- but at the cost of ceding the heart of the GOP to the New Right. Then, in the presidential election, Jimmy Carter defeated Ford by 2 million votes.

[cui bono]

15. Wow! Thanks for that link.

[thingfisher]

23. I think it is obvious by now

that presidents are the water carriers for those who are really pulling the strings of power!

[Philosoraptor]

16. 3 more reasons I HATE ford.

[RedStateShame]

17. In case anybody is wondering....

This is part of the rationale behind the Ford-hate being seen today. As one who was taught that we are often judged by the company we keep, I won't advocate it, but I can certainly understand.

[Supersedeas]

27. I hear ya

[WI_DEM]

18. hard to believe it now but back in the mid 70's Rummy and Cheney

were considered moderate republicans.

[Octafish]

20. Ford minions Cheney and Rumsfeld covered up death of Frank Olson.

Mr. Olson was the CIA scientist who refused to go along with the plan. So, he was fed LSD, driven mad, and then "suicided."

http://www.serendipity.li/cia/olson2.htm

Cheney and Rumsfeld were crucial in covering up the crime.

http://www.counterpunch.org/floyd0828.html

Ford got Poppy Bush to shut the Church Committee up regarding CIA assassination stuff.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/27/1645231

Thanks for the great pics, Stephanie.

[Stephanie]

29. does that explain where Dick got the anthrax idea?

:scared:

[Generator]

25. Mon dieu!

Hey a bright spot for DU'ers-Reagan is already dead! WHEW. Can't post that as it's own subject but oh how I'd like to. Old men die. AMAZING. And YES, they have families. And we can feel badly for the families because they were afterall, human beings, no matter how many hundreds of thousands of deaths they were directly or indirectly responsible for. Maybe he was a wonderful father and a spectacular dad. But, but.. but...

America-wake up! The long nightmare is still here.