Reply #2: Go Along, Get Along Jerry

[KharmaTrain]

I remember a politician using that term to describe him before he became president. He was chosen for the Warren Commission and on many other panels cause he was anything BUT controversial. Nixon, in his cynicism, picked Ford as what he thought would be a life insurance policy for his Presidency as he knew Ford would sail through confirmation (he did) and that his lack of political backbone and ambition wouldn't conflict with Nixon's imperial Presidency.

Ford's pardoning of Nixon angered me no end as I wanted Nixon to face trial for his actions and never bought the bullshit that it would have torn the country further apart. The fix was in...and many of us knew it at the time. Ford got a big free pass from the media at the time but not from the electorate who voted overwhelmingly for Democrats in '74 and it cost Ford the election in '76.

Regarding his keeping silent. I'm not surprised. There were some reports in '04 that Ford wasn't happy with the booosh family and the war, but Ford, just like in the Nixon instance, put party ahead of country and played the go-along, get-along dude. As he said about himself..."I'm a Ford, not a Lincoln".