Requiem for a decent guy from Omaha

Some men strive for greatness and others have greatness thrust upon them. Gerald Ford was such a man. Ford brought Midwestern common sense and sense of community to a difficult time in our history. Ford wasn’t a general or a revolutionary. He wasn’t aggressive or power-hungry, you might even think he was kind of “square.”

Ford was the right man at the right time and did the right thing, even though at the time, it was very unpopular. Ford had other Midwestern qualities that made him just what America needed as it celebrated it’s turbulent 200th birthday. He was practical, pragmatic, and realistic. He was self-effacing and grounded. He was patient and unselfish. He led by example, rather than by edict, rhetoric, scheme, or coercion. These qualities that were all so needed by our country at the time are attributes that would probably make him unelectable today.

Like Eisenhower, he sometimes may have appeared that Ford wasn’t really in charge because he was surrounded by so many strong personalities with high profiles. People thought Ike was constantly taking naps or on the golf course while his Vice President, Richard Nixon ran the show. People feared that Ford’s Chiefs of Staff Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney ran Whitehouse while Ford was off skiing.

History has since revealed that both Presidents were much more decisive and in-control that it may have appeared. They listened to subordinates, but in the end, made their own decisions that frequently ran counter to the party line or their advisors’ ambitions. Both rose above the influence of ideologues and wanna-be power brokers.

Ford was the Congressman for Grand Rapids, Michigan when he was picked to replace Nixon’s first Vice President, Spiro Agnew. No doubt, he was chosen because he was known for his integrity. Agnew resigned under suspicion of accepting bribes back when he was governor of Maryland. Not only was Ford someone without skeletons in his closet, but as Minority Whip in the House, he was a proven consensus builder.

Ford’s hope was to get enough Republicans elected to Congress, that he could someday move from being Minority Whip to being House Speaker. Nixon was a hot dog, a glory-hound, a ball-hog. He wanted to be the star. Ford was a team player, and really, America was his real team, the Republican Party was just the squad he played on to scrimmage.

Vietnam and Watergate had polarized Americans more than anytime since the Civil War.

Senate Minority Leader Barry Goldwater convinced Nixon to resign rather than face Impeachment in the House and removal from office by the Senate. Impeachment is like indictment and the House of Representatives is like a Grand Jury. The Senate has never had to serve as a trial jury to determine guilt and implement sentencing. They recognized the Clinton impeachment as political theatre and didn’t even begin proceedings. When Nixon left office, his Vice President, who had been appointed, not elected, succeeded him as the 39th President.

In many ways, Ford was the antidote for Johnson and Nixon. He was calm, steady and paternal. He had the opposite of a mandate, he knew that none of his constituents actually chose him, so he didn’t try to impose any half-baked agenda. Where Nixon saw himself as above the law, operating outside the system, Ford sought to impress upon us the merit and effectiveness of our Constitutional system of checks, balances and the processes that have our founders so carefully engineered for us. Maybe he didn’t think of himself as god’s gift to politics, certainly in true modest Midwestern fashion he didn’t claim to be. But in many ways he was indeed a godsend. He helped us heal and bridged tears in the fabric of our society. Many would have liked to have seen Nixon prosecuted and held accountable for Watergate. Ford recognized that our system received what it needed in his resignation, for national and international balance, civil and economic, what we needed was not to become even more divided and more focused on our problems, but instead to move forward. Like Lincoln, Ford recognized the importance of forgiveness and reconciliation for the sake of National unity. He put country before party, and the interests of the common good ahead of personal ambition. He paid for that politically.

If only there were candidates running for President with the same kind of character as Gerald Ford. What a shame that someone with down to earth Midwestern values only came to power by accident, and yet, what a blessing. And this, from a “yellow-dog” Democrat like me.

Bonus for Blog Readers:

Many attribute Jimmy Carter’s victory over Ford in 1976 to Ford’s pardoning Nixon. Carter would pay a similar price for pardoning people who fled to Canada to avoid the Vietnam draft. Both men would eventually develop a close and lasting friendship after their presidencies. That friendship may not be as famous as that of other rivals, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, but it was a testament to putting country before party, and putting the interests of the common good ahead of personal ambition.

While Ford’s love affair with his wife Betty may not have been as famous as that of John and Abigail Adams, it was a model of fidelity, candor and commitment.

Johnson connived a blank check from Congress for military action in Vietnam without an actual declaration of war. He later lied about American casualties there. Nixon talked about having the South Vietnamese stand up for themselves but secretly escalated the war including illicit operations in Laos and Cambodia. To prevent further leaks like the ones that exposed Johnson’s dishonesty (revealed in the New York Time’s “Pentagon Papers”) Nixon established a secret security team called “the plumbers.” In order to insure his re-election and guarantee himself a landslide, Nixon and his inner-circle pulled “dirty tricks” and had the “plumbers” break into the Democratic Party’s national headquarters at the Watergate.

In recent interviews with the Washington Post, Ford made clear his disappointment in the decision to invade Iraq and the subsequent mishandling of the war. He didn’t shrink from criticizing his former staff members Cheney and Rumsfeld. It’s good to know that there area at lease some “cloth-coat” Republicans who aren’t in lockstep with the radical-right and the neocons. Maybe if Ford were President today, both would have been fired long ago. I’d like to think that if Ford had been head of the RNC back in 2000, George W. never would have been nominated.

Long time readers know me as a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat, but as a student of history, I can’t help but admire and appreciate what Ford tried to do for our country. Sarcasm and hyperbole are a columnist’s stock and trade- but when I urged Republicans to regain their self-respect by voting against Congressman Steve King, I was genuine and didn’t mean to demean or offend anyone. If more Republicans were on the mold of Gerald Ford instead of Steve King and George H.W. Bush, maybe we could debate actual issues and ideas rather than having to suffer personal attacks and faux-patriotism.