Now they've got Gerald Ford reading the script!! (re: Rummy)

[Sparkly]

Washington -- Former President Gerald Ford offered public praise Friday for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, criticizing a group of retired generals who have called for Rumsfeld's resignation.

Ford, a Republican, wrote to defend Rumsfeld, who served as chief of staff in Ford's White House and as his defense secretary from 1975 to 1977. Over the past two weeks, retired generals have been speaking out against Rumsfeld amid criticisms that he has ignored his military leadership and failed to properly plan and execute the war in Iraq.

(snip)

Ford wrote that retired generals should not decide the nation's war policies and leadership lest it set "a dangerous precedent that would severely undermine our country's long tradition of civilian control of the military."

"It would discourage civilian leaders at the department from having frank and candid exchanges with military officers," Ford wrote. "And, today, at a time of war, such an effort sends exactly the wrong message both to our troops deployed abroad and to our enemies who are watching for any signs of weakness or self-doubt."

Why does that sound so familiar?? Oh yeah -- because it's the same crap they've got everybody saying!! Same script, new actor.

[Botany]

1. What about retired presidents?

Ford wrote that retired generals should not decide the nation's war policies and leadership lest it set "a dangerous precedent that would severely undermine our country's long tradition of civilian control of the military."

[itzamirakul]

10. Great analogy!

eom

[joeybee12]

2. Ford was worthless then, and he's worthless now...

...on his 90th birthday he was interviewed on telelvision, and every innoucous question he was asked he didn't answer, but somehow turned it into a defense of Dumbo and all the other filth. Worthless, worthless, worthless.

Poor Betty.

[madrchsod]

3. no wonder she drank....

yes jerry is a bit daft in the head. i`m not sure if he has any functioning brain cells left although he is just a little more alive than bernie.

[Botany]

4. But Ford is a decent man

I disagree with his politics but I know people who have worked around him and
they think the world of him as far as him being "salt of the earth" good guy.

True story ..... As President his Golden Retriever, Miss Liberty, crapped on the floor ....
a secret service person or an aid started to clean it up .... Ford stopped that person and
told him, "I do not expect any man to do that for me."

BTW he is not dumb or a klutz ...... University of Michigan All American Center on the Football team
& Yale Law School on an Academic scholarship.

Again i disagree w/ his views but he has a good side too.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

6. Yeah, and Hitler loved his canary

Fuck "nice guy." He's a right-wing shill, a guy who got lucky, a know-nothing pol who lucked out when Nixon fucked up.

Never forget that politically expedient "pardon" he gave The Big Dick, leaving open forever the notion that our leaders will EVER be held to a standard of justice that should apply across the board to all Americans.

Fuck him. Who cares how nice he is? I don't. He should just take another nap and stay fucking quiet.

[Botany]

11. Points

1. I disagree with Ford on rummy and just about everything else.
2. the pardon of Nixon was in Ford's on words about his time .....
over 50% of his time was being used up by watergate & Nixon ....
he wanted to move on .... was there a deal to pardon Nixon ...
probably was but it got Nixon the hell out of the White house.
BTW if it was possible I would dig up Nixon's rotting bones ... give life
back to them .... and put him in place of W in a heartbeat .... and I loath
Nixon.
3. "Fuck him. Who cares how nice he is? I don't. He should just take another nap and stay fucking quiet."
Ford has as much right as any American to state his views.
4. As far as the Hitler crack (it applies to bush IMO):

In April 1942 Ford joined the U.S. Naval Reserve receiving a commission as an ensign. After an orientation program at Annapolis, he became a physical fitness instructor at a pre- flight school in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. In the spring of 1943 he began service in the light aircraft carrier USS MONTEREY. He was first assigned as athletic director and gunnery division officer, then as assistant navigator, with the MONTEREY which took part in most of the major operations in the South Pacific, including Truk, Saipan, and the Philippines. His closest call with death came not as a result of enemy fire, however, but during a vicious typhoon in the Philippine Sea in December 1944. He came within inches of being swept overboard while the storm raged. The ship, which was severely damaged by the storm and the resulting fire, had to be taken out of service. Ford spent the remainder of the war ashore and was discharged as a lieutenant commander in February 1946

[OldLeftieLawyer]

13. No, his views are different (4)

He's a former President. His words have a kind of gravitas that yours and mine will never have.

As for his personal history, it's irrelevant. Who cares? He's history, and bad history at that.

Remember his statement about Eastern Europe?

The man was a good golfer, and, as some of my very old friends here in Alexandria tell me, a lovely neighbor. That adds nothing to his addled defense of Donald Rumsfeld or signing some crap letter written for him by another rightwingnut holding the pen.

His line in that letter, in case you didn't read it in its entirety, about how support for our President means staying silent and not giving aid and comfort to the enemy or dispiriting our troops was right out of Fuckface's talking points. Alberto Gonzales probably wrote it.

Who cares about Gerald Ford? I repeat, he should just take another nap and shut the hell up.

[Botany]

16. Remember Solidarity in Poland? Ford was right.

"Remember his statement about Eastern Europe?"

Bottom Line he put his Ass on the line fighting in WW II and the Hitler crack is way
out of line ..... that shit should be left to Ann Coulter, Rush, and Zell Miller.

However i do have real doubts about Ford writing that letter ....
He has had 2 strokes and pneumonia .... I think he has been in a hospital setting
for months/

[OldLeftieLawyer]

17. Who cares?

Lots of WWII vets puts their butts on the line. What does that have to do with his support of Rumsfeld today? You're missing the point, friend.

And, if you think he was right about that gaffe about eastern Europe, you don't know anything about what happened during that election. He was an embarrassment, in 'way over his head, nothing but a Michigan Congressman with good political skills who caught the brass ring.

Imagine what we've spent on protecting him and his SS detail since he left office 26 years ago. An unelected "President." What a joke. And he handed Nixon - the biggest criminal ever to occupy the office until this bastard, Bush II - a free pass.

So, don't tell me anything about his military service. Gerald Ford's a joke and a disgrace, in my opinion, and telling me how wonderful you think he might have been is roughly equivalent to telling me that Hitler was good to his canary. Everyone's got their good points.

If he's that enfeebled, what the hell is he doing "writing letters"? He's still nothing but a mouthpiece and a shill for the Republicans, who are now really scraping the bottom of the barrel.

The canary has more credibility that does Gerald Ford.

[OzarkDem]

20. The GOP made him rich

He was never a really wealthy man until he became president. Once retired, he cashed in big with GOP donors, similar to Reagan.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

21. He fell in shit,

and now he's nothing but a mouthpiece.

How pathetic is that? Rumsfeld must be feeling very proud of himself today.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

5. No kidding

Talk about a guy who fell in some seriously great shit and proceeded to make a very nice, unearned and wealthy, life from our national disgrace. And, don't forget - he pardoned Nixon.

Incompetent pol with nothing to add to our nation's history, except as an asterisk. The greatest joke of our Bicentennial in 1976 was that we were, that Fourth of July, saddled with the only unelected President in our history.

He's senile, he's worthless, and it tells us all how hard-up the Repugs are if they're going to these lengths - propping up the almost-dead - to support Rumsfeld. Who is also almost-dead.

[partylessinOhio]

7. Who wrote this for Ford?

Since Ford had his stroke he has made NO public appearances and cannot travel to important events attended by the other ex-Presidents.

We cannot be sure of his condition but I doubt he is able to write in support of DumboDecider.

[Imagine My Surprise]

8. It's sad when they make someone at death's door do their bidding...

surprised they didn't force BETTY into it, too. Maybe they wanted to give her a few minutes home from the hospital before giving the script to HER.

[terrya]

14. I read that this morning and thought how shameful this was.

The White House had to reach out to a 92 year old former President who never makes public apprearances anymore, who has essentially retired from public life, just to support their dangerously unfit for duty Secretary fo Defense.

Of course, why was I surprised they would stoop to sometning like this?

[Mythsaje]

9. They had to bring him in to prop up the shrub...

I mean, next to Chimpy, Ford looks graceful.

[PsN2Wind]

12. Gerry Ford

who parleyed an appointment to VP and a pardon of Nixon into a very short stay in the Whitehouse but the longest stay of an ex-prez sucking from the US treasury. Unelected but still drawing the pay-check.

[Donna Zen]

15. Ford said this morning: I need no logic

A little background: After watching the unfolding of the Iraq War, several commanders along with the rest of the sentient world concluded that Rummy's policies do NOT make military sense. Zip sense. None. And that brings us to those generals (as in people who understand military strategy and tactics) call for a change in management. One would think that people who have willingly put their lives on the line for this country, and understand that, unlike Ford who sat by Vietnam unfolded, they have a duty to speak out about failed leadership even though it would cost them personally.

And now this: "Ford wrote that retired generals should not decide the nation's war policies and leadership lest it set "a dangerous precedent that would severely undermine our country's long tradition of civilian control of the military."

Even in his dotage Ford should be admonished for such a ridiculous leap in logic. Asking for new leadership has nothing to do with undermining the civilian control of the military. If that were the case, the military professionals would at the very least be asking for an active military person to take over the E-Ring, but they are not. This is not a military coup. They're asking for what?: civilian leader who knows what they're doing, has the trust of the rest of the world so that negotiations can go forward, and would be evidence that when someone fails in doing their job, they're held accountable.

Ford, who was never elected to the presidency, may have read his assigned lines, but he should receive no respect for playing the fool. The dangerous precedent is someone flounting unearned gravitas.





Wm. Sloan Coffin from an article by Bill Moyers:"At a dinner in his honor in Washington he had reminded us that “the world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love.” But as we left he winked at me and said, “Give ’em hell.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

18. Beautifully said

Thanks.

[Donna Zen]

19. Thanks

That is high praise when I consider the source. You put forth very tight arguments, and I'm sure you also see the flaws in this crack-pot thinking. Now, if only the MSM would get their heads out the trough and on to the truth. Yeah..yeah...I'm a dreamer. But only if our collective dreams reach the tipping point, will our dreams become the reality.