December 31, 2006
Pardon Me, Ford Fans
The day that former Allegheny County Commissioner Tom Foerster died, I happened to be talking to a local TV personality --- and I'm not going to say who, for reasons that will soon be obvious.
Foerster, then serving on county council, had left the commissioner's office several years earlier under something of a cloud. There was a scandal involving the public works department and there were many complaints about the new jail in Pittsburgh. Some people blamed Foerster (or credited him, depending on your point of view) for ending 60 years of Democratic control of county government.
Upon Foerster's passing, though, the newspapers and airwaves will filled with praise for his long career of public service, and some of the same commentators and political rivals who had been ripping him were now offering lavish tributes.
So I asked the TV personality what he thought of the accolades Foerster was receiving. He sighed. "If you never did anything good in your life, but you want people to say something nice about you, just die," he said.
Uh, ouch. That was an unfair thing to say --- Foerster wasn't that bad, and actually did quite a bit of good --- but I got the point.
. . .
I thought about it over the weekend as I read all of the solemn tributes being paid to former President Ford. Pundits are praising his "controversial" decision to pardon Richard Nixon for any crimes he may have committed while in office --- and in case you're playing along at home, those crimes likely included illegal wiretapping, campaign finance violations, conspiracy to commit theft and burglary, official oppression and obstruction of justice. (Hey --- nobody's perfect.)
I have heard Gerald Ford compared numerous times to Abraham Lincoln, with his champions claiming that the man from Michigan, like the Great Emancipator, "held the country together" during a crisis.
If Gerald Ford is "Lincolnesque," it's only by comparison to the presidents who came before and after him. By the way, there's an inspiring trio of leaders for you: Ford, Carter and Nixon. Or as Bob Dole called them, "see no evil, hear no evil, and evil." But I digress.
Many editorialists are praising Ford's "courage" in issuing the pardon. True, it was courageous, since it probably cost him the 1976 presidential election. But you can do something that's courageous and wrong, too.
. . .
There are plenty of good reasons that Ford could have pardoned Nixon. After two years of investigations and months of hearings that had stalled the federal government, the Vietnam war was still dragging on, inflation was out of control and OPEC was threatening to shut off the flow of oil to the U.S. The country had to move forward.
And no one (except for the far left) really had any stomach for seeing a president of the United States put on trial.
But on the other hand, pardoning Nixon allowed him to collect his substantial government pension and benefits. It also effectively ended any attempts to figure out who had committed the various alleged offenses during his administration --- and what steps, if any, should be taken to prevent those offenses from happening again.
Make no mistake --- Nixon was completely unrepentant. In September 1974, before the pardon, the former president was subpeonaed to testify before Congress. His lawyers said he couldn't comply because he was suffering an attack of phlebitis. At the time, Nixon was playing golf in San Clemente. You could, as they say, look it up.
. . .
And people seem to forget that President Ford had denied over and over again that he would pardon Nixon ... almost right until the day that the pardon was announced. His press secretary quit in protest.
As for courage, Ford had been one of Nixon's most fervent supporters, going all the way back to the 1952 presidential election. According to Tom Wicker, when Nixon was accused of taking campaign contributions under the table (his denial was the notorious "Checkers" speech), U.S. Rep. Gerald Ford sent him one of the first telegrams of encouragement.
Throughout his career in Congress, Ford staunchly defended Nixon against all of his critics, even as the Spiro Agnew scandals and Watergate were pulling the White House down around Tricky Dick's ears. This unswerving devotion to Nixon no doubt helped Ford get the vice-presidential appointment in the first place, leapfrogging him over such contenders as John Connally, Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater.
The most conservative elements of the Republican Party didn't think Nixon had done anything wrong in the first place, or refused to admit that he was a scoundrel, and pardoning Nixon was exactly what they wanted. How did it take "courage" for Ford to issue the pardon under those conditions? And where was this "courage" a year later, when the right-wing demanded that Ford dump Nelson Rockefeller from the ticket?
. . .
I truly don't mean to speak ill of the dead, and I hate to beat up Gerald Ford, who by many measures was a great American, and a decent and honest human being. But I can't tolerate this reckless revisionism. There are perfectly valid reasons that Ford's pardon of Nixon was "controversial," and why it should remain "controversial" today.
Should Nixon have been frog-marched into a jail cell? No. But pardoning him before he even had a trial or a formal hearing certainly gave creedence to Nixon's boast to David Frost in 1977 that "when the president does it, that means it is not illegal."
Some people may argue that a trial was a mere formality --- that we already knew what Nixon had done. True --- but we knew that Saddam Hussein was guilty as sin, and he got a trial. (The merits of that trial are best debated elsewhere.)
I also heard several people say on talk shows that by accepting the pardon, Nixon did admit his guilt. Maybe. But to what? Ford pardoned Nixon "for all offenses against the United States which he ... has committed or may have committed."
What were those offenses? Until the day he died, Nixon never admitted a thing. He described the myriad of scandals that tainted his administration as "a complex and confusing maze of events, decisions, pressures and personalities," and accepted responsibility only for "not acting more decisively and more forthrightly in dealing with Watergate."
That's not an admission of guilt --- that's deflecting blame.
I understand that we occasionally have to look back and re-evaluate historic figures and their legacies, but let's try to place them in their proper contexts, please. Willful ignorance of the facts helps no one.
. . .
Ford was probably an average president --- better than many of our leaders, not as good as others.
But being the leader of the free world is not like participating in the Cub Scout potato sack race. You don't get a ribbon just for competing.
So let's try to keep Gerald Ford's legacy in its proper perspective, and please, don't start breaking ground for his monument just yet.
Posted by jt3y at December 31, 2006 09:14 PMThe Waxing Nostalgic Ad Nauseum has nothing to do, really, with the passing of a President. It has more to do with the WMDs, Words of Mass Distraction.
We have lost 3,000 lives (American Soldiers) in Iraq. This number does not include:
(1) the Haliburton/Bechtel/KBR/Blackwater contractors;
(2) the wounded who died after leaving the battlefield (i.e., dying in a German hospital or at American hospitals) or;
(3) the number of lives of the Coalition of the Willing.
Those we lost in Afghanistan are not included either.
I believe it was Johns Hopkins who compiled the number of dead Iraqi civilians and the number is staggering.
Gerald Ford died at a convenient time.
Posted by: Lane in McK at January 1, 2007 06:34 PMWell, let's be fair--the standard for revisionist history was set in 1994 when Nixon himself died. I recall asking my political science advisor in college what he thought of all the praise that was lavished on Nixon then, and his words were "It's sickening. An entire generation of Americans is going to believe that Watergate was nothing more than a third-rate burglary."
Do you think that if there had been a trial, and the facts had come out, all those Nixon apparatchicks would still be able to defend the old scoundrel, the way they did last year when Mark Felt's identify as Deep Throat was revealed?
Posted by: Jonathan Potts at January 1, 2007 07:48 PMOh, I don't know. Cripes, Joe McCarthy was censured by the United States Senate and died in utter disgrace --- and there are still apologists claiming the ol' drunken reprobate was misunderstood. So I doubt that a trial would have prevented G. Gordon Liddy, Pat Buchanan, John McLaughlin, et al from trying to polish the Nixon "legend."
I think the facts about the Nixon scandals --- which go far, far beyond the Watergate break-in --- /have/ all been revealed, but they were never really tested in open court, under oath.
Accusations were made against Nixon by prosecutors, congressional committees and news reporters; but those don't really carry the same weight as if a court had actually taken testimony, allowed cross-examination, and rendered a verdict. Trials serve a useful public purpose. Otherwise, we wouldn't try criminals at all --- as soon as they were arrested, the police would issue summary sentences.
It distresses me to see people who are supposedly attorneys who don't seem to understand that (1.) The President of the United States was accused of crimes against the state, public order, and the citizens he was sworn to serve, and (2.) That a formal airing of the charges and an official verdict might have had probative value.
As for whether Ford's funeral is providing a useful distraction, Lane, I don't necessarily agree. The media is happy for any distraction from real news, including K-Fed's "singing" "career" and the absence of Britney Spears' underpants. Reporters love pageantry, and a state funeral is full of it.
Posted by: Webmaster at January 1, 2007 08:33 PMIt's all bread and circuses.
Your comment about "people who are supposedly attorneys who don't understand..." is on target. There should have been a trial, and had there been, I wonder what our country would be like today. That would make for an interesting game of "What If".
Posted by: Lane in McK at January 2, 2007 06:55 AM
Some of us commemorated President Ford's passing with an unusual winter visit to the Yough Trail yesterday, Our Fair City's least known asset. The weather was mild and the trail was mostly dry. (I only dumped my bike once.)
The trail was the perfect place to reflect upon Ford's storied political career and many contributions to our nation, few of which could be remembered with any clarity. But then again our ideas about what constitutes greatness have had quite a come-down in recent decades. What better backdrop for these wholly random thoughts than the beautiful emerald green Yough and serene trail?
In the past year, we counted three businesses that have closed near Little Boston, including a Ford dealership near Renzie Park. Purely coincidental? We don't think so.
Posted by: Prof. Windbag at January 2, 2007 12:34 PMFollowing up on the Professor's comments: The Ford Dealership moved into the old Ames building at Olympia Shopping Center.
The other two businesses he mentioned, I can only guess that one of them might be the old Arby's. Maybe Professor, you will clue me in (as I am clueless about the 3rd).
But what I REALLY want to know is -- what the hey is that abandoned construction "fits and starts" on Walnut where Rt. 48 comes in -- between AutoZone and Olympia. It's a large building which is beginning to become unglued by the wind and weather. Big cutouts for windows, a strange castle-like turret on one end. I can't even begin to imagine what the developer was imagining.
While this next business I bring up is not in McKeesport, I am rather bummed that Uncle Al's Famous Hot Dogs closed up shop (located in the shopping center across from Jefferson Hills Cemetary). Maybe hot dog shops shouldn't be adjacent to cemetaries? Is that the message?
I am still mad at the owner of the Tube City Cafe for not behaving himself because I really liked the food there. And I really miss the Lil Boston Dairy because it was so much fun to get an ice cream cone and go down by the river and enjoy the frozen treat and contemplate the lazy, lovely Yough while the ducks begged for crumbs.
At least Central Pizza is still around but they need to figure out how to make their pizzas in a consistent manner. If it's greasy, it must be Tuesday.
Posted by: Lane in McK at January 3, 2007 10:46 PMWhy, I mean to say the mini mart in Renzie Park near the fire station is apparently closing. That was the third business in the past year that bit the dust. And, yes, I think it was a a fast-food joint that also closed, not far from the Ford dealership that recently pulled up stakes.
Too bad about the mini-mart. It was a great place to stock up on water and snacks before hitting the Yough Trail, Our Fair City's Biggest Mystery Asset That No One Ever Heard Of.
That's all for now. Over.
Posted by: Prof. Windbag at January 6, 2007 08:17 AMWhy, I mean to say the mini mart in Renzie Park near the fire station is apparently closing. That was the third business in the past year that bit the dust. And, yes, I think it was a a fast-food joint that also closed, not far from the Ford dealership that recently pulled up stakes.
Too bad about the mini-mart. It was a great place to stock up on water and snacks before hitting the Yough Trail, Our Fair City's Biggest Mystery Asset That No One Ever Heard Of.
That's all for now. Over.
Posted by: Prof. Windbag at January 6, 2007 08:18 AMWhy, I mean to say the mini mart in Renzie Park near the fire station is apparently closing. That was the third business in the past year that bit the dust. And, yes, I think it was a a fast-food joint that also closed, not far from the Ford dealership that recently pulled up stakes.
Too bad about the mini-mart. It was a great place to stock up on water and snacks before hitting the Yough Trail, Our Fair City's Biggest Mystery Asset That No One Ever Heard Of.
That's all for now. Over.
Posted by: Prof. Windbag at January 6, 2007 08:28 AMWhy, I mean to say the mini mart in Renzie Park near the fire station is apparently closing. That was the third business in the past year that bit the dust. And, yes, I think it was a a fast-food joint that also closed, not far from the Ford dealership that recently pulled up stakes.
Too bad about the mini-mart. It was a great place to stock up on water and snacks before hitting the Yough Trail, Our Fair City's Biggest Mystery Asset That No One Ever Heard Of.
That's all for now. Over.
Posted by: Prof. Windbag at January 6, 2007 08:32 AMGee, is there an echo in here?
Posted by: Webmaster at January 6, 2007 07:49 PM