Gerald Ford, RIP

Pajamas Media has a huge roundup.

Comments

[MayBee]

My Grandfather knew him when they were both small town politicians. Ford maintained contact throughout the years, and we have a letter from him as President to my Grandfather when my Grandmother (a staunch Democrat) passed. Just a few years ago, on a chance meeting, Ford heard my father's name and remembered him as my Grandfather's son.

I know my hometown is sad today, he was an honest man and a good one.

[Patton]

http://michellemalkin.com/

Great John Kerry shot.

Of course Sam would sit with him.....

[SunnyDay]

from yahoo news via Drudge (who calls it a "snub")

Reid to miss Ford funeral

By DENNIS CONRAD, Associated Press Writer
Thu Dec 28, 12:08 AM ET

WASHINGTON - Incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will miss the state funeral for former President Gerald Ford at the Capitol Rotunda on Saturday night, opting instead to lead a delegation to South America with an expected stop at the Machu Picchu Inca ruins.

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Reid, D-Nev., left Wednesday afternoon from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland with a bipartisan group of five other senators, including Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the incoming assistant majority leader, for what has been described as a weeklong visit to Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru.

The highlight of the trip is said to be separate meetings with the presidents of the three nations, with the last one scheduled in Peru on Tuesday afternoon.

"They would be difficult to cancel," Reid spokesman Jim Manley said via mobile phone as the congressional delegation took off in a U.S. military plane.

The senators are also scheduled to be in Cuzco, Peru, on Sunday, which would give them an opportunity to view the nearby Inca ruins and anything else in advance of New Year's Eve.

Manley said the senators opted to skip Ford-related ceremonies over the next few days because of the long-scheduled meetings with the South American presidents, noting that U.S. relations with some of the countries are in need of improvement.

Manley did not rule out the possibility that the delegation might return to Washington for at least one Ford-related event, perhaps a church service Tuesday morning. But their meeting with Peru's president, scheduled for the afternoon, could interfere with that, he said.

"Senator Reid has tried to reach Mrs. Ford," Manley said, adding that the senator had not received a return call from her before the delegation had departed for South America. Manley later added that Reid had called the former first lady to express condolences, and also to explain why the delegation might not make it back to Washington for the funeral.

Durbin's office released a statement before he left, calling Ford, who died Tuesday at age 93, "a man of principle, integrity and honesty who helped heal the nation during some of our darkest times." He offered his "deepest condolences" to the Ford family.

Other senators making the trip are Kent Conrad, D-N.D., Judd Gregg, R-N.H., Robert Bennett, R-Utah, and Ken Salazar, D-Colo.

[SunnyDay]

Patton

Blackfive has a good piece on the Kerry visit. Not linking because of the spam filter.

However, the comments are quite amusing, and this one is definitely on point (it was a proposed caption to one of the photos).

Comment below written by: Bob You gotta believe me when I tell you that Cicero(d. 43 BC)was not talking about me when he said, "A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself."

Actually, I picked that up from Don Castella via the Illinois Review. Bob

Posted by: Bob | Dec 19, 2006 2:44:58 PM

[narciso]

On Reid, what an idiot, no wonder Dick Smother's portrayal of him in 'Casino'
is so dead on. On Ford, Bob "They told
me the Deep Throat was a sure hit, What
. . ."Woodward, shows a double dose of
cluelessness on the Iraq comment, first
by airing it, second by not following
up, with the question; "like you allowed
to happen to 1-2 million Cambodians in
1975"

[Pete]

Ford was a real decent guy, the kind of politician one wishes there were more of these days. Even against the Iraq war may I add. RIP, President Ford.

Sorry for interrupting the scheduled programming of Dem bashing.

[topsecretk9]

...Ford was a few weeks shy of his 93rd birthday as we chatted for about 45 minutes. He'd been visited by President Bush three weeks earlier and said he'd told Bush he supported the war in Iraq but that the 43rd President had erred by staking the invasion on weapons of mass destruction.

"Saddam Hussein was an evil person and there was justification to get rid of him," he observed, "but we shouldn't have put the basis on weapons of mass destruction. That was a bad mistake. Where does [Bush] get his advice?"

At the time, the CIA.

[topsecretk9]

Also, Woodward looks like a dunce, yet again.

[SunnyDay]

second by not following
up, with the question; "like you allowed
to happen to 1-2 million Cambodians in
1975"

Don't know where you go this info but it is not true.

[SunnyDay]

Pete, I take it you weren't around during the mid 70's.

[Larry]

R I P Mr. President. Gerry Ford was a lot of things, some of them controversial, but above all, he was one of the good guys. Incidentally: Anyone know when the federal budget was last in balance? Go to the head of the class if you said the Ford administration.

[Patton]

Nice try pete, but the Democrats spent all of Fords years in office telling us what a stupid bumbling baffoon he was.

Can't change your position now just because he's dead.

At least Senator Reid, in his position as the leader of the Senate is not changing his spots. He's going on vacation rather then have to sit through a funeral for a Republican baffoon.

This will mean of course that if the Republicans control the Senate when Clinton passes (stabbed by prostitute no doubt). The Senate leader can freely spend the time on a nice vacation rather then pay last respects to a boorish President.

[maryrose]

President Ford was a class act and an effective President. Reid and company are just showing their true colors. Thank God they will not be in the majority for long. Reid and Durbin-the no class twins.

[Neo]

I once saw (or at least think I saw) Gerald Ford at the 1976 Baseball All-Star game in Philadelphia.

As I was in standing room only at the top to Veterans Stadium (RIP), a dot, identified as Gerald Ford, came out onto the field to throw out the first ball. He left around the 7th inning, as I saw his motorcade head to the airport.

[narciso]

Might have been in any book on the period,
the Khmer Rouge, not the Khmer Serai, to
which then lt. j.g Kerry, insinuated he
provided material to in Cambodia) swept into Phnomh Penh, April 30, 1975; after US forces 'redeployed' from there under Congressional pressure, Thelocal NY Times reporter. Sydney Shamberg, though the US was the only obstacle to peace in Cambodia. Prior to the arrival of the Rouge, Sirik Mitak, a high government official's last statement was a reproach of his innocence in taking the US govt's promises seriously.The Sorbonne educated, Maoist cadres of Saloth Sar/Aka Pol Pot, under the umbrella of China exiled Prince sihanouk,proceeded to carry outthe 'reform program he had outlined in his Ph.d in Paris, nearly 20 years before;on a course of Auto-genocide; which claimed1/3 of the population of Cambodia. (This, thanks to
the Nixon Mao embrace, put us indirectly on the side of the KR Years later, when Shamberg, was reproached for agreeing with the Reader's Digest, on the scale of the horror (possibly only equaled by Rwanda)he admitted they are right at times. It was these and other events, that
led Joan Chavez to remark that 'communism
was fascism with a human face'. One figure
who was wrong then, denying the Cambodian
hecatomb; and wrong a generation later, alleging (yet never retracting the calumny
that we were going to commit' genocide in
Afghanistan' either through poisoning or
starvation was Noam Chomsky. We can project
now, that the sectarian forces, headed by the Baathist/jihadi axis, which first tried
to exterminate the Kurds in 1975, to which
Henry Kissinger, replied, we were not
'engaging in social work',as to the fate
of the Kurds (see 1963, 1991, 1994, and 1996
for similar circumstances)unchecked by US
forces to create a similar result. in greater Near East Asia.

[Patton]

Saddam to be hung within hours according to report on Drudge.

Only tears tonight at Sam's house. Dear leader to assume room temperature.

[SunnyDay]

Narciso, congress cut off the money. Ford was helpless.

[Patton]

Saddams lawyers running to US Courts in last minute effort to save his neck.

Gee, I guess all his talk about being ready to die was just B-llsh-t.
Guess he's not so anxious for martydom, and to meet his 40 virgins.
Terrorist leaders, they preach jihad and a free ticket to heaven..but when its their turn..they turn into cowards.

[Jane]

I am really struck by the juxtaposition of Sasddam's hanging against Gerald Ford's death. The death lust for Saddam's hanging on Fox is just overwhelming, interspersed with sprinkles of how moderate and nice Ford was.

It's just bizarre.

[MayBee]

I do think Ford was much nicer than Saddam.

[Jane]

Indeed. Thanks for the laugh!

[Pofarmer]

So, one thing is bugging the hell out of me. The MSM just loves to parrot the "Brought the country together" phrase. Yet he vetoed 40 bills. What exactly did he DO? I mean, besides bend over for the Libs?

[topsecretk9]

Just as the lefty world sleeps and quivers with bizarre radio silence at the thought of Dear Leader's demise--Townhouse anyone?---

Marcy Wheeler, emptywheel, said in her comments on some tedious Wilson-ear-whisper-like inspired post..

Redshift

We really really need to get rid of Cheney. Not sure if it's via impeachment--or something else (since he's a Constitutional officer, it'd almost have to be impeachment). But it has to happen. The man is going to bring us into WWIII.

Posted by: emptywheel | December 28, 2006 at 15:57

Gee Mizz Wheeler, that's dangerously close to condoning assignation? ---is what I thought.

Anyways, if a righty said anywhere near close to this call to action Hamsher would surely be on a meth like 374 posts about it.

[MayBee]

But it has to happen. The man is going to bring us into WWIII.

Remind me again who are the ruled by fear, pants-wetting scardey cats?

[Foo Bar]

Anyone know when the federal budget was last in balance? Go to the head of the class if you said the Ford administration.

Here are the federal budget numbers going back to the early 1960s.

Under what interpretation of "balance" was the budget balanced under Ford but not under the last few years of Clinton ('99 and '00) ?

[MayBee]

But you're right, tops.
Over at daily Kos there are dozens of comments calling for Bush's execution, none of them trollrated. That's the audience John Edwards chose to live-blog to the day he announced his candidacy for President. Heartwarming.

[topsecretk9]

Remind me again who are the ruled by fear, pants-wetting scardey cats?

Posted by: MayBee | December 29, 2006 at 10:28 PM

Well MayBee can always be counted on for zeroing in on an inconvenience for the Liberal world-view ...but then again MayBee is special.

[topsecretk9]

(Saddam DEAD)

I am sure that the Wilons' put out the oxygen depriving decree of the story (townhouse)...if any 2 are relived Saddam is dead, it's Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson...he can no longer implicate Wilson contact with his friends their,,,and all the money he made at his wife's conflict of interest position...I am sure she wanted- needed to avoid her 5 year mandatory polygraph test.

[Jane]

But it has to happen. The man is going to bring us into WWIII.

Someone should inform the woman that WWIII began a while ago.

[Patton]

Guess you would really piss off the DailyKos'ers if you informed them iof a simple little truth:

The second biggest killer of Iraqis after Saddam Hussein was none other then their man Clinton.

Madeline Albright even stated that 500,000 dead Iraq children due to the sanctions by 1996 was a price worth paying.

Lesley Stahl on U.S. sanctions against Iraq: We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: I think this is a very hard choice, but the price--we think the price is worth it.

--60 Minutes (5/12/96)

Then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's quote, calmly asserting that U.S. policy objectives were worth the sacrifice of half a million Arab children, has been much quoted in the Arabic press.

This was also one of Osama Bin Ladens main recruiting tools to his terroist training camps.

[Patton]

And what was the Clinton reason for killing over a two million Iraqis??

The WMD threat!!

Clinton lied, millions died!

[Barney Frank]

TSK9,

Gee Mizz Wheeler, that's dangerously close to condoning assignation? ---is what I thought.

Ordinarily I skip over typos but this one was too funny. This Marcy Wheeler must be some Mata Hari. What's she gonna do knock Cheney off on a moonlit walk through the cherry blossoms?

[Neo]

Dont' think of it as Sasddam's hanging but rather a very late term abortion.

[Pofarmer]

Note to Mz. Hamsher

We don't neccessarily get to pick our wars. This is one of them we didn't pick.