Ford's pardon of Nixon allowed the nation to finally heal...

[Webster Green]

What a load of bullshit! It didn't heal me. I'm still pissed about it!

Can we expect the same for junior, or will he be held accountable for his crimes?

[uppityperson]

1. jfc, Nixon's crimes come nowhere near Mrbush's

argh

[TomInTib]

2. I recall that crap.

"Hasn't the Poor Man suffered enough?".

Fuck G Ford and the wife he rode in on.

[Sydnie]

3. I agree with you

It left it to fester like a pus filled boil on the nations butt. We needed exposure and truth to heal. We were treated like children that needed to be lulled back to sleep rather than citizens that needed to take back control of our own destiny and our government.

[Bluestar]

4. Yep, the biggest load of BS ever hoisted on a nation

The only ones allowed to heal were the Republican party. We should have been allowed to drag old tricky Dick through the muck and driven all of his supporters from every office in the nation and destroyed the Republican party. Now you see what we're dealing with because they were allowed to escape and fester.

Seems to me most of the biggest problems the US has encountered during this century have been when Republicans were in control--the Great Depression, the Cold War, Watergate, the Persian Gulf War, Reagan's horrible economies and Iran Contra and, of course, the biggest travesty of all George W. Bush's disastrous reign. We can't blame Viet Nam on them (although they kept it going) because Kennedy and Johnson started that fiasco.

[mrcheerful]

18. Thats a half truth abot JFK, it was actually Ike that sent the first advisors into nam.

January 20, 1953 - Dwight D. Eisenhower, former five-star Army general and Allied commander in Europe during World War II, is inaugurated as the 34th U.S. President.

During his term, Eisenhower will greatly increase U.S. military aid to the French in Vietnam to prevent a Communist victory. U.S. military advisors will continue to accompany American supplies sent to Vietnam. To justify America's financial commitment, Eisenhower will cite a 'Domino Theory' in which a Communist victory in Vietnam would result in surrounding countries falling one after another like a "falling row of dominoes." The Domino Theory will be used by a succession of Presidents and their advisors to justify ever-deepening U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1945.html

Edited to add........Though reading through it was Truman that started the advisors in 1950, it seems Ike just upped the number of advisors.

[Selatius]

5. Ford's pardoning of Nixon set a non-precedent for Bush.

If Nixon had been removed, then it would've set a precedent for all future presidents whenever they broke the law.

[RoyGBiv]

6. How so?

Nixon resigned. Him being removed from office was not an issue involved with the pardon.

[JI7]

10. good point, he resigned because they WERE going to impeach him

right ?

[RoyGBiv]

12. Well, maybe ...

We'll never know the back-room politicking that went on, and one could reasonable guess (but it would only be a guess) that the events that led to Nixon's resignation included the eventuality of a pardon like the one Ford offered. He resigned basically because Republicans in Congress told him he should, for the good of the party if not the nation, since they would be forced by the circumstances to side with those seeking impeachment.

Still, the pardon is at best an assumed part of this series of events. I doubt it was a deal-breaker.

[PFunk]

7. My thoughts exactly

If Nixon was actually impeached then. Other presidents past him would think twice before doing something stupid enough for them to get impeached-or never allow them into office (i.e Bush). Or the bar would be raised so high that one would think twice before calling for an impeachment for something so stupid (i.e. Clinton).

Either way. Now afterwards Ford's pardon was a bad idea. But one done with good reason at that time IMO.

[JI7]

8. i'm not sure that would have been true

what would probably have been a mostly negative process and times of the impeachment and later Senate trial might have made people less likely to want to go through it again.

on the other hand it might have helped avoid the impeachment of Clinton. but then again that was such crap and so obviously a right wing political attack maybe not.

[pinto]

9. I appreciated Mr. Nixon's resignation in that it called a time out

on a paranoid Presidency. I would appreciate the same from Mr. Bush.

But, to your point, I think Mr. Ford's pardon was a good thing. Nixon was out, he went home to California, and we went on.

[ConsAreLiars]

11. The pardon essentially said criminal acts, violations of the Constitution,

and genocide were no big deal. Ford said that shit was "no big deal." Fuck him and all those who learned that lesson - that phony actor and professional snitch, the Kennebunkport spawn of a Nazi collaborator and his idiot offspring. Ford gets my vote as the second most vile unelected president in the history of this country.

[oasis]

13. Unconstitutional Clinton impeachment? House Speaker Jim Wright's

forced resignation?

Headhunting, ultra right GOP Gingrich,Richard Mellon Sciafe, Tom 'asshole" DeLay, Karl Rove, Asshat Cheney and that Emmett Tyrell creep who runs the American Spectator have never stopped going for the jugular.

[Nite Owl]

14. No kidding

MSNBC is saying how he lost because he went down the middle, wasn't republican enough. No, he lost because he wouldn't hold Nixon and his party accountable. They are changing history.

What Nixon did was nothing compared to * and we can't let it happen, the bar has been lowered again and again.

[lapfog_1]

15. He lost for THREE reasons (at least)...

1. He pardoned Nixon
2. Chevy Chase
3. Whip Inflation Now

[leftofthedial]

16. it swept shit under the rug

that still stinks to this day

and sowed the seeds of the conmen takeover of the repuke party and the neocon coup

[aquart]

17. It didn't heal. It festered.

Children learned that the rich and important don't pay for their crimes. They learned only underlings are sacrificed and justice is a crock. I don't call that healing.

And conservative children learned that evii has no consequences.

[calimary]

19. Damn. VERY well said. That's how I see it, too.

It shortstopped any real accountability for high crimes and misdemeanors, and DID pave the way, even in an under-the-radar way, for the bigshots to wriggle out of trouble without having to pay for it. Great precedent for junior to weasel out of things, too, 'eh?

EXCELLENT post. We were all TOLD, over and over, that it was about healing. But I never felt that way. I still felt quite ill.

[shance]

20. The pardon blocked the real truth of Watergate from being exposed .

Watergate was not close to being allowed to be uncovered.

The secrets and the truth behind Watergate are still waiting to be brought to light.

[malaise]

21. 100% correct

Sometimes healing is less important than purging society of scum. There would have been no Iran Contra, no Reagan, no PNAC, no Cheney nor Rumsfeld if a complete purge had taken place in the 70s.