Left I on the News

Richard Becker provides us today with the best summary I've seen yet of Gerald Ford's real record, covering his complicity in the genocide in East Timor, along with his role in Angola, Lebanon, Cuba, Operation Condor, Vietnam, and on domestic issues as well. Highly recommended.

The one thing Becker omits is any discussion of Ford's status as a liar with respect to the very thing he's being honored as a "healer" for, starting with the lie that got him confirmed as Vice-President:

When asked during his vice-presidential confirmation hearings about the possibility of his granting a pardon should Nixon need one, Ford replied: "I don't think the public would stand for it."

And continuing with the lie which followed the pardon, when Ford proclaimed:

"My conscience tells me it is my duty, not merely to proclaim domestic tranquility but to use every means that I have to insure it."

Ford actually received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for that supposedly noble act, which we now know (thanks to a posthumous revelation by Bob Woodward) was anything but:

"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.