Say what you want about Ford...He pardoned Nixon for the Good of the United States

[greenbriar]

Ford knew there would be a conviction after months of investigations and knew that the USA would be bogged down and suffering for / with it for up to 5 years and that the rest of the world would see us as week and take advantage.

say what you will, he pardoned Nixon for the GOOD OF THE COUNTRY

[muntrv]

1. I think allowing Nixon to stand trial would have reinforced the notion that

we are a country of laws and not of men.

[guyton]

23. imperial presidents

it helped us "get over" the trauma at the time, but we've been paying the price with imperial presidents that feel no accountability ever since.

near-sighted decision at best.

[Sgent]

2. According to his memoirs

Nixon was paralyzing his administration -- taking up 25% of the time.

[Garbo 2004]

30. Ford pardoned Nixon one month after his resignation. Ford's administration was

"paralyzed" in its first month? What was taking up Ford's time was deciding whether or not to pardon Nixon before he had even been charged with anything. IMO it was rather disingenuous of Ford to use that as a rationale, seeming to suggest that "paralysis" would have been the status quo for the rest of the term if he had simply decided to NOT pardon Nixon.

By the way, what were the major accomplishments of the Gerald Ford administration?

[greenbriar]

3. he also condemmed Clinton's impeachment

and told the world it was stupid


and a waste of time

[havocmom]

8. So, he was batting 500

not 1000

[Zynx]

31. Batting .500 he should have been paid $35,000,000.

;-)

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. That's what Bush says about the invasion of Iraq.

He did it "for the good of the country" and that the world would see us as weak and take advantage if we didn't. In fact he's still saying it.

[havocmom]

5. Ah, no. He pardoned Nixon for the good of others who would have gone down with Dick

And a lot of those criminals are responsible for many of the conditions we find ourselves in as a people now.

What he did was NOT helpful to the country. Putting a band-aide on a festering abscess is in nobody's best interest. Better to deal with oozing puss than blood poisoning.

[tnlefty]

27. Thank you. I remember my republican father being livid when it

came across the news that Ford had pardoned Nixon! He had a hissyfit. He wanted Nixon to tar and feather.

All that I learned from that sorry state of affairs is that those who have money and/or power don't have to play by the same justice system that us 'mythical little people' do.

[havocmom]

33. Haven't been able to say the pledge of allegiance since that pardon

"... with liberty and justice for all." sticks in my throat until I can hardly breathe.

[havocmom]

34. Cheney & Rumsfeld learned that same lesson too.

THAT hasn't helped the nation one whit!

[mitchum]

6. Utter bullshit

Loyal Jerry (who was also J Edgar Hoover's longtime snitch) allowed the culture of corruption to continue. He served his masters well.
But you you can keep on mouthing that meaningless cliche as much as you like (it makes Jerry's masters VERY happy)

[Kagemusha]

7. I realize that you have a point. Good friends have made it to me.

It's too bad that there's some truth to it. It's very much too bad that Cheney brought the wrong lessons from it, but... that's Cheney's conscious doing, not Ford's intent.

[hippiechick]

9. ... if that's what you want to believe ...

n/t

[omega minimo]

10. Used Nancy Reagan's astrologer?

"Ford... knew that the USA would be bogged down and suffering for / with it for up to 5 years and that the rest of the world would see us as week and take advantage."

How did he *know* that? Why do you think sweeping Watergate and Nixon's crimes under the rug was "for the Good of the United States"?


:popcorn:

[dflprincess]

11. What could have been better for the country than making it clear

that some people are above the law? :sarcasm:

[ixion]

12. ironically, it had the opposite effect, and was just one more step to fascism

[eagler]

13. And impeachment of Bush would show the world

that the Americans do not wish to continue down the same road . that would improve our image world wide

[Hubert Flottz]

14. Too Lazy, Stupid, Partisan and Inept. to do his duty to uphold the

laws of the land!

They pardon each other and give poor people 20 years in prison for having a little bag of pot.

Want to heal America? Release ALL political prisoners! The WAR ON DRUGS is POLITICAL!

[illinoisprogressive]

15. You must put it in the contex of the times

Things were really bad back then. Ford came from an era where dignity, grace and class were the norm. an era where you worked with the guy across the aisle who you viewed as the opposition and not the enemy.
Ford was best friends with Tip and Carter. both the symbol of liberal democrats.
it was a time where hate politics and greed and self interest were not the normal.
You went to congress and politics in general to do public service and to better the country. You put the people and the country before party or self.
Ford was a really decent person who did what he thought best for the country. Not for any nefarious reason. That was a normal politican then.
It wasn't until the era of Newt and Delay that what we know is the norm and Ford would be a traitor and thought of as unpure and a sell out. Bipartisanship for the good of the country wasn't a dirty thing back then. It became so in the 90s.
What I do worry about is that as much as Pelosi wants us to be like it was in Ford's time where there is class and grace again, we won't let it. We dems will be wanting our pound of revenge that we will, essentially, become the very thing we hate: just like the repubicans.

[Hubert Flottz]

19. It started when they murdered the Kennedys...

What was Nixon doing? Was he playing fair?

[Big Sky Boy]

36. The road to hell is paved with good intentions

At the time it seemed like the right thing to do. Tip O'Neill blocked any serious attempt at impeaching Reagan for the same reason.

I think we are beginning to see now that this process of forgiving the president for "the good of the country" or whatever other reason you might have has given rise to a sense of entitlement among our chief executives and their staffs. The ends justify the means. They are above the law.

I would like to see some semblance of class and grace return to governance as well. But Republicans have ignored that rule book for over a decade.

We cannot simply smile and be nice and go back to business as usual and hope they will follow our lead. If Dems are unwilling to prosecute those who broke the rules, we will only confirm that we actually are the lilly-livered, spineless, weak-kneed, stupid, bumpkins they have been calling us for years.

[Garbo 2004]

39. You're characterizing politics in general and Congress in a "good old days" that didn't

ever really exist in the way you state. Seriously idealized.

"it was a time where hate politics and greed and self interest were not the normal.You went to congress and politics in general to do public service and to better the country. You put the people and the country before party or self."

Sorry, but that's a fairy tale. Not that there weren't people interested in the public good as there still are today, but the idea that politicians in general were selfless, pure, only interested in the public weal way back in some imagined golden age of politics, well no. That's simply not the way it was.

[Sgent]

16. Lets be honest

Nixon was a better president than shrub.

[scarletwoman]

17. No, Ford pardoned Nixon for the good of the ELITES.

Laws and accountability do not apply to the powerful -- that is what pardoning Nixon established.

I do not see how such a precedent is "good" for our country -- unless you favor an aristocracy over a republic.

sw

[greenbriar]

18. he is PRO-CHOICE and would not apologize for it

even went so far as to say it should stay out of politics

[whistle]

20. History, if the facts are not lost, will show Gerald Ford did it to save

....the republican party not the country. It will also show that the republican party was already lost to the likes of Ronald Reagan, the religious right and to those who would become known as neoconservatives.

[ritziecracker]

21. Ford participated in 2 cover ups!!!

Ford's pardoned of Nixon cost the country the truth just like the cover up of the assassination of JFK did! Please don't tell me that it was good for the country that the american people are not told the truth!!! Bush can only hope for a pardon for his crimes! Let's hope not for the good of the Country!!!

[Bob3]

22. No - he did it for the good of the ruling class not us.

The whole notion was to sweep the mess under the rug to keep the rabble from getting too angry with their leaders - which might have - gasp - meant real change and the loss of nice lunches - Listen to them now you'd think Castro was coming to town. The US was not suffering, the Establishment was suffering - big, big difference. Nixon going to jail would have done nothing to our commitments to Nato, or our other foreign policy commitments - other than maybe not over throwing the elected government of Chile.

[Stargleamer]

24. Our country only prospers when justice is promoted. . .

not denied or evaded. To hold some above the law is to sacrfice whatver ideals we have come up with during our experience in this country. No his decision to pardon made any American concerned with fundamental fairness sick to their stomachs.

[laststeamtrain]

25. Say what you want about Ford...but he was a mass murderer...

...but he was very 'nice' about it.



See this thread & many others:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x253657

All this cheer-leading for Gerry Ford is grotesque. Now it's time for the history exam.

What do you think he's doing in this picture with Suharto & Kissinger? What's being discussed? What possible 'good' is achieved by the slaughter of innocent people?

[Zenlitened]

26. "I looked upon him as my personal friend... I had no hesitancy about granting the pardon because..."

Ford, Nixon Sustained Friendship for Decades

By Bob Woodward
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 29, 2006; Page A01

(snip)

..."Anytime you want me to do anything, under any circumstances, you give me a call, Mr. President," he told Nixon during that May 1, 1973, conversation. "We'll stand by you morning, noon and night."

This and other previously unpublished transcripts of their calls, documents and personal letters provide a portrait of an intensely personal friendship dating to the late 1940s but so hidden that few others were even aware of it. Until now, the relationship between the two presidents has been portrayed largely as a matter of political necessity, with Nixon tapping Ford for the vice presidency in late 1973 because he was a confirmable choice on Capitol Hill.

But the tapes, documents and two lengthy recent interviews with Ford before his death this week, conducted for a future book and embargoed until after his death, show that the close political alliance between the two men seriously influenced Ford's eventual decision to pardon Nixon...


(snip)

"I looked upon him as my personal friend. And I always treasured our relationship. And I had no hesitancy about granting the pardon, because I felt that we had this relationship and that I didn't want to see my real friend have the stigma," Ford said in the interview.

Link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/28/AR2006122801247.html

[Goblinmonger]

29. Yeah, what a helluva guy

I wonder how many people that are spouting this line of nonesense were actually alive at the time.

[Goblinmonger]

28. Too bad that others who committed the crimes for Nixon

still had to do prison time. Apparently letting Liddy and others off for the same crimes was NOT for the good of the country. Just for the figure head. Whatever gets you through the night I guess.

Hopefully the next president will pardon Bush so we don't have to live through a trial.

[Capn Amerika]

32. You are right, the nation was at a standstill during the OJ trial.

Wait, how would the trial of a deposed, powerless leader interfere with anything other than tabloid headlines?

[Garbo 2004]

35. Baloney. 1. What about Ford's friendship with Nixon influencing the pardon?

Reportedly, according to previously unpublished material:

"I looked upon him as my personal friend. And I always treasured our relationship. And I had no hesitancy about granting the pardon, because I felt that we had this relationship and that I didn't want to see my real friend have the stigma," Ford said in the interview.

That acknowledgment represents a significant shift from Ford's previous portrayals of the pardon that absolved Nixon of any Watergate-related crimes. In earlier statements, Ford had emphasized the decision as an effort to move the country beyond the partisan divisions of the Watergate era, playing down the personal dimension.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16387228/

2. The US has survived foreign invasion, civil war, the Great Depression, World War, civil unrest, impeachments, etc. But allowing a disgraced and unpopular crook to be subject to the criminal justice system....oh heavens, no. The nation would have fallen apart.

The mythology that "sanctifies" the pardon is a con job. The pardon to "spare the nation" story provided cover and set an unhealthy precedent. A precedent not lost on the elder Bush. Preemptive pardons, preventing further investigations and prosecutions.

"Healing a divided nation?" How so? One of the people most responsible for fostering the divisions and engaging in divisive partisan politics could get away with his crimes and was above and beyond the reach of the law. The divisions sown in those years didn't just go away or "heal." They've been used, nurtured and exacerbated by the Republican Party ever since.

How many of the Republican pols who now parrot the "for the good of the country," "heal the wounds" rationale are the same ones who supported a multiyear, multimillion dollar and very public investigation of a President that was a witch hunt looking for a crime and all it could come up with was lying about a blow job. Nothing divisive or diminishing in national stature about that? How many of those pols are the same ones who have participated in and supported years of divisive hatemongering, flouting of the law and the Constitution?

IMO, the greatest beneficiary of the pardon besides Nixon was the Republican party. Not the nation.

[Pastiche423]

37. Anyone who was alive and paying attention

during that time, knows that's a crock. No way will my feelings about the pardon change because the repukes want Ford to be known as a decent person. A decent person that helped cover up their crimes.

[Zorra]

38. You gotta be kidding. This is a joke, isn't it? n/t

[Bluebear]

40. Oh, well that settles it then. nt

[Ani Yun Wiya]

41. I think that for the good of the country...

that what the republicans should do is voluntarily disband and dissolve their "political" party.
Failing that perhaps Democrats should seriously work on outlawing the republican party.
They have been blatant in their crimes and contempt for humanity for many decades and this country needs a serious house cleaning.

[U4ikLefty]

42. Wow, I sure wouldn't want the rest of the world to see us as "week".

"and that the rest of the world would see us as week and take advantage."

[stevedeshazer]

43. So, you agree with Ford that Nixon was above the law?

Nonsense.

Exactly how would the country have suffered by having Nixon's crimes investigated?

[tkmorris]

44. It's good for the country that a criminal goes free?

Why? Why should he go free? Because he was the president? What fucking message does that send? That if you are a member of the ruling class the laws don't apply to you?

Unlike you my ill informed colleague I believe the country would have been just fucking DUCKY if it had learned that laws apply to EVERYONE, not just the poor, or the minorities. I think that if Nixon had been prosecuted the Iran-Contra bullshit would never have happened. I think Carter would have won a second term. I think Bush v 2.0 would never have dared to do half the crap he has done. I think the nation I believe in NEEDED to make the point that even the president is not above the law.

Nixon disgusted me. YOU disgust me. Your notion that an important person is above the law makes me weep for the country I love. We needed fucking closure, and justice. We didn't get it and the floodgates were opened. That's the GOOD OF THE COUNTRY to you? Jeebus H. Christ I feel sorry for you. Stop swilling the god-damned kool-aid and realize that you are being sold a bill of goods.

Great Goddess in the sky, are we drowning in idiots?

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

45. Nonsense

You can make a case for the country's good being served by the pardon, but to ascribe that to Ford's motive is a stretch of your imagination. He did it to serve his party.