Living in Grand Rapids, it's difficult to escape the shadow of Former President Gerald R. Ford. The Gerald Ford Freeway passes within a mile of my place. The airport by where I work is also named after him. And if I travel downtown, I can find his Presidential Museum. While president, Gerald Ford recorded a mesage saluting the Coast Guard, that is still played during the Musical Fountain in my hometown during the closing night of the annual Coast Guard festival, and more recently, he recorded a message that was played at my youngest son's kindergarten graduation.
Gerald Ford passed away yesterday, his political legacy being our first unelected president and vice president. He was also our longest living president as well. But Ford's legacy extends far beyond those little blue pinback WIN buttons that were the only hallmark of his term as president.
Ford had admittedly altered the findings of the Warren Commission, creating the "magic bullet theory", one that effectively placed all blame for the Kennedy assassination on one man, which then ended any further investigation into the assassination. Ford has stated that ''My changes were only an attempt to be more precise'', when in fact, they were a lie.
"President Ford was a great American who gave many years of dedicated service to our country," President George W. Bush said in a statement on Tuesday.
Yes, tampering with evidence would make Ford a great man to the guy who cherry-picked intelligence to start a war that is in many eyes unwinnable.
In 1973, after Vice-president Spiro Agnew resigned, President Richard Nixon appointed Ford to take his place. When Nixon stepped down in disgrace almost a year later, Ford became our first appointed president. Almost immediately, Ford pardoned Nixon, effectively ending an investigation into what the Watergate break-in was really about, once again covering up the political assasination that led to the rise of the corpocracy.
Dick Cheney, who served as Ford's chief of staff said:
"Gerald Ford embodied the best values of a great generation: decency, integrity and devotion to duty."
Decency? Integrity? How someone like Cheney could stand in judgement of these qualities which he so obviously lacks is anyone's guess.
16 comments:
I've seen way to many fawning remembrances already...thanks for laying the truth down.
Remember when it was the "in" thing to go to the Betty Ford Clinic? That's where people went to get honest with themselves. I always thought that was the best PR any administration ever did to cover up their deceit.
power corrupts
and absolute power
corrupts absolutly!
rich white men
all stick together...
and he is no different
than any of the others
in the big white house
in d c
Are we surprised that all of these same asshats have been complicit with each other for so long?
Great post....
thank you for the Warren Piece...amazing...and sad...and now we have an asswipe who thinks that there is no punishment hanging in the wind, becuase Nixon skated off in the sunset- no charges , NOTHING.....
That Pardon was just more of the Coverup...all of these people make us question What is holding this country together...
decency ? Integrity? HA?!>|?!!
not to mention the 200,000 dead in East Timor
A few things will always stick in my craw about Ford... giving away the Panama Canal was one thing, and the other is the pardon of Nixon. I think the guy did the best job he could with the tools he brought to the job; that is, he didn't do too great a job and that may have been due in part to him not being of real presidential timber, IMO. So he surrounded himself with people he thought were good people, but who actually weren't. I will go check out the Warren link now! Thanks for posting your thoughts!!
Lots of ass covering going on and has been for years. I hope all these people who thought he was so great told him so before he died.
I thought he was pretty outspoken about being against the war and I thought that was the primary chat of liberals. This seems to a liberal blog.
Not one mention of that here. Wow.
I thought that was the biggest beef liberals have right now. I guess I am wrong.
Ford was not outspoken about the war. He told Woodward how he felt about it and made Woodward promise not to reveal what he had said until after he died.
I was struck by the endless repitition of Ford's words at the beginning of his administration, just after the pardon...the speech about the end to our national nightmare. Seems to me that Carter's election did more to heal the nation than Ford's tenure.
For once, Cheney is speaking his thoughts truthfully. When he said "devotion to duty", he was referring to Jerry's devotion to the Kennedy assasination whitewash.
Mr Bailey,
It's a common mistake to think that "liberals" are all about opposition to the war, but it goes much deeper than that. As Patricia said, Ford didn't want it known that he opposed the war in Iraq until after he was dead, and that speaks volumes about how far we have strayed as country under George W Bush: that even a venerated ex-president such as Gerald Ford must keep his opinions silent until his death becuase they are contrary to what the corpocracy wants the people to hear. I believe we are all speaking out now so that future generations will also have the right to speak out against the injustices carried out in our name.
Good post Lew...a tad different perspective than others...
Dick Cheney even talks about decency and integrity?
How splendidly ironic.
great link-and sentiments.
the contrast of ford's never-ending funeral vs. james brown's funeral was perfection. life and death are funny like that.
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