Ford pardon "sealed Watergate shut "

[deminks]

As I read this title to an AP article

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061227/ap_on_re_us/ford_nixon_pardon

I am wondering, what was it we were not supposed to know? What else would have come out in the Nixon Trials?

(snip)

"My conscience tells me it is my duty, not merely to proclaim domestic tranquility but to use every means that I have to insure it."

Nixon held up the process when he balked at Ford's request for a public statement of contrition.

The final draft of Nixon's statement bore no acknowledgment of guilt.

"I was taking one hell of a risk, and he didn't seem to be responsive at all," Ford wrote.

"Finally, it was done," Ford wrote in his book. "It was an unbelievable lifting of a burden from my shoulders. I felt very certain that I had made the right decision, and I was confident that I could now proceed without being harassed by Nixon or his problems any more."

(end snip)

There was no closure for the American people. There was no assurance that the system worked - it was halted. What else would we have learned if the trials had proceeded? Would we still be playing the same hateful games with the same evil cast of characters? Why did he have to 'seal Watergate shut? Gerry did not heal the nation, he only rubbed salt in the wounds.

[Cooley Hurd]

1. "...what was it we were not supposed to know?"

I have a feeling it was what Nixon called "the Bay of Pigs thing" (i.e. the Kennedy Assassination).

[roguevalley]

20. I am so glad to see this. I never knew one person who wanted the

pardon.

[knowbody0]

2. shutting that door

led us here. corruption and hubris. lesson learned? Never sweep crap under the rug. clean the house properly.

[unkachuck]

22. exactly....

....or allow a fascist cabal to slither back into the shadows....they will re-appear....are you listening, Congress?....

[Solly Mack]

3. Whenever I hear or read the words "for the good of the country" or

"so the nation can heal" as excuses as to why corrupt politicians won't be held accountable for their criminal actions, I think "cover up"

Just more lies and deceptions swept under the rug while couching it in the language of unity and healing...

You can't heal a wound by pretending it doesn't exist...

[shain from kane]

13. "For the good of the country" should have read "for the good of my party". Can you

imagine what the country's reaction would have been towards the Republican Party if the truth about Watergate, on a timely basis, had been revealed? George Bush was Chairman of the Republican Party at the time. The public was outraged at the sacrificial lamb, Gerald Ford, who had to be thankful of being President, when he previouly had a snowball's chance in Hell of ever obtaining the office, with the wealth that was assured to him as a former President, from just the pension alone. No George Bush as President, no W as President. Analyze subsequent events from that perspective.

[Imagevision]

4. Ford was installed to Pardon Nixon and close the watergate issues

[BuyingThyme]

5. I thought I was the only one

to see the obvious.

[Hamlette]

7. LOL

you people need to use the sarcasm icon when you write stuff like this. Seems some people here on DU believe you when you talk about all that debunked conspiracy stuff.

[BuyingThyme]

9. Yes, Watergate never happened. And if it had,

it would have been the work of a loner.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. Ssshhhh! You're being disrespectful to a "decent" man.

Just because he participated in the coverup of multiple crimes doesn't detract from his "decency".

[riderinthestorm]

8. Yeah, how dare you "bash" Ford today?

:eyes:

[omega minimo]

10. "Would we still be playing the same hateful games with the same evil cast of characters?"

"Would we still be playing the same hateful games with the same evil cast of characters?"


... and the same "for the good of the party/elections" ill logic is being used now to argue against impeaching Bushco......

[journalist3072]

11. The pardoning of Nixon is the problem I have with Ford

In my view, he was interferring with the administration of justice.

What would have been the harm in allowing Nixon to be brought up on charges and stand trial, and let the facts come out?

I think it was selling the American people short to basically say 'let's move on.' We can do more than one thing at a time. We can walk AND chew gum.

The business of government, under the new Ford administration, would have still gone on even if Nixon went on trial.

[Old and In the Way]

15. What was Watergate about?

Crippling the 2 Party system. They wanted to crush us, the political opposition. I don't know why we are supposed to look at Ford as some benign political person. He was a Republican who took the job to make sure that the facts of the Republican war on Democrats didn't come out. He was an ideal person to make the cover-up happen...a social moderate with an easy going persona and a likable family.

Ford gave the Republicans the necessary breathing space to regroup and come back to promote their anti-democratic agenda that we've lived under for the past 30 years. It was obviously quite a successful gambit from my reading of the pro-Ford posts on DU.

[journalist3072]

16. Couldn't agree with you more. n/t

[tridim]

19. I'm still amazed how many people believe Watergate was no more than a "Third rate burglary"

Most Americans have no idea how massive Watergate actually was.

[Imagevision]

12. Changing statements in the warren commission is what I have a problem with

[shain from kane]

14. Ford also had problems when he revealed privileged information from the

Commission, at the time, in his book about Lee Harvey Oswald.


http://www.amazon.com/Portrait-assassin-Gerald-R-Ford/dp/B0006BMZM4/sr=8-3/qid=1167248876/ref=sr_1_3/105-9756374-2534843?ie=UTF8&s=books

Also, from the internets ---

"Ford, then a Representative, later wrote a book on the JFK assassination, Portrait of the Assassin, using material that Earl Warren had ordered be kept from the public for 75 years. He suffered no repercussions for this action. Afterall, the book was a further indictment against Lee Oswald, a man who could not defend himself against this book or the charges within it since he was dead. In the years since the Commission wrapped up it's (for lack of a better term) flawed investigation, Jerry Ford has been one of it's most vocal defenders. "Never before has a crime been so thoroughly investigated," Ford wrote in his book."

Edit to add reference.

[progressivebydesign]

17. shocks me that media says he is respected for restoring trust.

I'm not old enough, I suppose, to understand this. But HOW did pardoning criminals of his own party restore the trust in the presidency??? I honestly think that average Americans were very unsophisticated politcally back then, and perhaps viewed the pardons that way? they didn't view them that way in MY house back then.

[omega minimo]

18. good question

looks to be just more myth-making-- like today's spin that Ford was the "only unelected president"........

[tyedyeto]

21. It wasn't just about Watergate.....

The pardon included everything Nixon has done while he was President.

Think Cambodia, Pinochet....... all crimes were now pardoned with no recourse.