Bob Woodward keeps spinning the Ford pardon

By Eric Boehlert
Created Jan 5 2007 - 9:08am

The national day of mourning on January 2 brought to a climax the outpouring
of goodwill toward Gerald Ford, the 38th president, who was universally
remembered as an honorable and hard-working public servant whose unorthodox,
short-lived presidency began amid Richard Nixon's tumultuous Watergate
scandal.

Indeed, in recent years, the Beltway's glowing conventional wisdom regarding
Ford has calcified to the point that only one radiant narrative seems
welcome in polite company. Namely, that by granting Nixon a full pardon and
thereby avoiding a lengthy Watergate criminal trial, Ford had done the
nation an enormous favor. And for that, Ford should be celebrated.

In the wake of Ford's passing, some of the pardon rhetoric got a bit lofty
[0], though, with a few pundits trying to elevate Ford into the realm of
Lincoln-esque presidents who literally saved the Union. Ford "threw himself
on a grenade to protect the country from shame, from going too far. It was
an act of deep political courage," wrote [0] Peggy Noonan in her December 30
column in The Wall Street Journal.

On Mon, 8 Jan 2007 09:24:48 -0800, "Gandalf Grey"
infectedmail.com> wrote, quoted or indirectly quoted
someone who said :

What if Clinton has spared the nation the OJ trial by pre-pardoning
him without any investigation. Would that be a favour to the nation?