Still The One 
Dick Cheney speaks for all of chattering America in promoting the glories of our least elected President, Gerald Ford.
His decency? Essential!
“One of the toughest decisions was also one of the earliest –– when he announced the pardon of Richard Nixon. For that he was attacked from every conceivable angle. His judgment, his timing, his intelligence, his motives, his personal integrity –– all of these were called into question. His public approval rating sank dramatically. But the President had made his decision carefully, and he had put the interest of the country first. He kept his head about him, even when it seemed that many others in Washington were losing theirs and blaming it on him.”
One former Ford official ain’t buying it. Jerald terHorst was press secretary to President Ford, and quit a month into Ford’s administration over the Nixon pardon. Reporters have looked him up in the wake of the Scott McClellan story, and terHorst is sticking to his stand.
“I think no man is above the law. You need to make a stand. That’s what citizenship is, in my book.”
Purdum Pulls The Trigger 
The latest on Bill “my office is in Harlem” Clinton’s adventures is served up in Vanity Fair‘s July issue by the magazine’s own star map of Washington, Todd Purdum.
It’s a delightful medley of old scandal and new.
Reviewing Clinton pants-down matters, Purdum reports on “… recent high-end Hollywood dinner-party gossip that Clinton has been seen visiting with the actress Gina Gershon in California,” but Gawker had this almost six months ago.
Purdum does better provoking post presidential spokesman Jay Carson on Clinton pal and billionaire boys club headmaster Ron Burkle. Carson reveals a longing for the opposition’s Fuhrer Principle:
“The ills of the Democratic Party can be seen perfectly in the willingness of fellow Democrats to say bad things about President Clinton. If you ask any Republican about Reagan they will say he still makes the sun rise in the morning, but if you ask Democrats about their only two-term president in 80 years, a man who took the party from the wilderness of loserdom to the White House and created the strongest economy in American history, they’d rather be quoted saying what a reporter wants to hear than protect a strong brand for the party. Republicans look at this behavior and laugh at us.â€
A thorough reading of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal leads Purdum to conclude Clinton is asking for bad press.
“But it is also beyond dispute that Clinton has blended the altruistic efforts of his philanthropy with the private business interests of some of his biggest donors in ways that are surpassingly sloppy, if not unseemly, for any former president.”
Purdum’s catchall excuse for differentiating Clinton from the cash which flowed to former president’s Reagan, Bush, and Ford is that “their wives never ran for president,” as though Clinton coverage only started with Hillary’s run. The current White House occupant goes unmentioned, along with Barbara Bush using the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund as a pass-through to troubled son Neil.
Mama Tried 
All Seeing 
It’s always great to hear from beloved old war criminal Henry Kissinger, and he does not disappoint in the latest “Lunch With the FT.”
A glancing effort comparing his perspective on Iraq:
“If we withdraw from Iraq, the radical elements in all the neighbouring Arab countries will be greatly encouraged.â€
…leads to the triumphant return of the Domino Theory:
“the collapse in Vietnam was partly compensated for by the almost simultaneous and fortuitous disintegration of the Soviet Union.”
The 15 years he thus whisks away may seem but the twinkling of an eye to an elder statesman like Kissinger, but it also has the additional benefit of wiping out his post-Vietnam adventures supporting South Africa’s invasion of Angola and Indonesia’s of East Timor.
Kissinger clearly has something going on with the period, lying about it in his memoirs and as recently as
Gerald Ford’s funeral:
“He sparked the initiative to bring majority rule to southern Africa, a policy that was a major factor in ending colonialism there.”
Kissinger was so desperately blocking dominoes back then that he even pitched Frank Sinatra for help in Africa.
For Some It Never Ends 
Grand Rapids continues to salute former President Gerry Ford, despite the indifference of the Ford family.
No family members plan to attend the premier of a Ford musical tribute, “One of Us, Portrait of a Humble Healer.” This latest slap to local pride comes Friday when the Grand Rapids Symphony premiers the work, accompanied by David “The Tom DeFrank of Pictures” Kennerly’s photographs.
No one from the immediate family attended the 2007 dedication of Gerald R. Ford Middle School.
Longtime local Ford memorialist Marty Allen says the Ford’s desperately await the music’s CD release. Next Fall.
“I know the family wants it done, because they can’t be here,” Allen told the Grand Rapids Press. “And they’re anxious to hear it.”
Allen is Chairman Emeritus of the Library, and cementing his place in history as Ford family stand in. The Ford Library even holds a painting commemorating the historic day when he received the flag 
which had flown at half staff to mark Ford’s death.
Future Ford Afloat! 
Who’d a thunk we’d turn to ESPN’s “Tuesday Morning Quarterback” to point out oddities at sea, but Gregg Easterbrook is on to something peculiar in the Navy’s naming schemes.
The troubled USS Gerald Ford, paired with Reagan and Bush Sr. ships, sent him over the edge.
“TMQ finds repugnant this blatant Pentagon favoritism for Republicans. Gerald Ford was never elected to national office: he was appointed to the vice presidency, then became president by succession when Richard Nixon resigned. The never-elected, half-term Ford will have a supercarrier named for him while Clinton, a two-term president twice chosen by U.S. voters, does not.”
Bush Is Gear 
A groundswell [or tsunami?] for Gerry is difficult to detect. The wingers at Newsmax ran petitions to name the ship for Ford, even touting USS Ford caps. Their site is Ford-free of merchandise now, if it ever carried it.
And lest we forget, the USS John F.Kennedy was retired last year.
