The Pathetic Lie of Jerry Ford

IN A RECENT ARTICLE in the New Republic, public opinion analyst Daniel Yankelovich explained that in the last few weeks of the presidential campaign a large number of voters will be focusing their decisions. The voters, Yankelovich suggests, are essentially satisfied with their judgment of Gerald Ford as a man of openness, decency, honesty and straight-forwardness. While it is not clear that this judgment will play a key role in the voters' decision, it stands in sharp contrast to their perception of Jimmy Carter as a man of mystery, even after the two months of post-Labor Day campaigning.

The voters' inability to obtain a real grasp of Jimmy Carter's nature is not really so surprising. It would not be too extreme to say that no presidential campaign in American history has succeeded in accurately portraying the candidates' real personalities. On the other hand, past candidates have been more successful than Carter in presenting a comprehensible portrait of themselves to the voters, regardless of accuracy. And therein lies a measure of Gerald Ford's success.

The endurance of that image is probably the result of Ford's unusual ascent to the White House. Fate having granted Ford a reprieve from the strenuous tests of a national campaign, the nation's expectations of the new President were formed primarily by the nature of his predecessor. After the disillusionment produced by the corruption and arrogance of Richard Nixon's administration, Genghis Khan would have been welcomed with open arms. If Ford seemd incapable of inspired vision and strong leadership, he also seemed in-capable of inspired villainy or ingenious deceit. It would be enough, it seemed, if he simply sat in the Oval Office without getting it dirty.

When the 1976 campaign began, Ford wasted little time in seizing on his unusual advantage, continually reminding his audience that he was the man who restored decency and trust to the Presidency, a man who cleansed the White House merely by his presence. And it would appear that Ford's image has successfully weathered both the bitter contest with Ronald Reagan in the primaries and the general election campaign against Jimmy Carter.

The strength of that image can not be overestimated. For not only has it vitiated any critical focus on Gerald Ford's record, but it has also surrounded the man with an aura of virtue that is in fact denied by Ford's record in office and his performance in the presidential campaign. The American people have been conned before, and apparently they are being conned again. Before election day arrives, a look at old newspapers might 'be worthwhile, for too many things seem to have been forgotten.

As a Congressman, Ford mastered the art of parliamentary sleight of hand, allowing him to claim that he had voted for final passage of every major piece of civil rights legislation, and simultaneously that he had fought to stop each piece of civil rights legislation until the final vote. As Nixon's servant in the House, Ford strongly denied ever having known of an American president providing false or deceptive information. In fact, he had already been privately briefed on Nixon's secret bombing of Cambodia, a policy the administration was publicly denying.

The possibility that Ford took a hand in aiding Nixon's effort to block an early investigation of Watergate by the House Banking Committee has not been foreclosed. It has not yet been established whether Ford was a witting accomplice in the coverup, but he certainly had been following Nixon's orders for four years without once questioning the motives behind those orders.

THROUGHOUT THE Watergate investigations, then Vice-President Ford continually attacked the talk of impeachment as a "massive propaganda campaign" by the Americans for Democratic Action and organized labor in their effort to take over Congress and the country.

Even after he was informed by Nixon's chief of staff, Alexander Haig, that the new taped evidence that was about to be surrendered to Judge Sirica would result in the President's impeachment, Ford told a crowd in Louisiana, "I believe the President is innocent. I don't want any impression created that I've changed my mind about the President's innocence." Later, as President, Ford would reverse his strident stand against immunity for Richard Nixon and issue a blanket pardon. In addition, he supported an administration ruling giving all Nixon tapes and documents to the former President, reversing his position only after he received an outraged reaction from the Justice Department, courts and the press.

As the 30-year war in Vietnam drew to a close in 1975, President Ford tried to keep it going with an urgent appeal for $1 billion more in American arms. He took military action against Cambodia over the seizure of the Mayaguez in the face of a law that expressly prohibits the use of U.S. forces in Indochina. He secretly aided factions in the Angolan civil war and, had Congress not prevented it with legislation, would have escalated American involvement. These are strange actions for a man who repeatedly extols the virtues of peace for its own sake, and takes credit for having kept America out of armed conflict.

Ford's management of the economy has included attempts to cut $14 billion from social programs, including child nutrition programs, educational benefits to Vietnam veterans, Medicare subsidies and public jobs programs. While vetoing social welfare programs because of their expense, the President recommend increases in defense spending that would have paid for the programs he vetoed and many more. Ford's opposition to government spending is clearly a narrow one. He has no such qualms about granting large businesses extensive subsidies and tax advantages, or providing the military with all the money it desires.

While the virtuous image of Gerald Ford is strained by his record in office, it literally comes apart in his campaign for re-election. Before the critical primary struggle with Reagan in Texas, Ford nominated a record number of local politicians and assorted favorite sons and daughters in Texas for federal jobs. The list of Texans he appointed include the director of the CIA, the ambassadors to Britain, Norway, Australia and Trinidad-Tobago, an interstate commerce commissioner, a federal maritime commissioner, an assistant secretary of state, two U.S. district judges, assistant secretary of the interior, director of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a U.S. attorney and members of the Federal Farm Credit Board and National Transportation Safety Board.

During his Florida campaign, Ford promised that the Republicans' 1974 gubernatorial nominee, Jerry Thomas, would be appointed undersecretary of the treasury. An Orlando defense plant suddenly received a $33.6 million contract, and the federal government suddenly came through with a $15.2 million grant to launch Miami's long awaited transit system.

FOUR DAYS PRIOR to the Texas primary, Ford authorized continued production of the Minuteman missile--including a new warhead for the missile--to the tune of nearly $380 million. Three months earlier, the Defense Department had discontinued Minuteman production, reporting that additional missile deployment would add little to national security and was in any case not worth the cost.

Sources close to the President indicated before the primary that the White House might be preparing for yet another reversal, this time concerning the long range naval shipbuilding program. Newspaper reports indicated the decision could well be determined by the results of the Texas primary, where Ronald Reagan had been winning over hawkish Texas conservatives with his talk of Soviet military superiority. Although administration officials had earlier indicated that the decision would have to await preparation of the next budget, the President announced expansion of the program on May 4--three days after losing in Texas.

The Texas primary campaign and the amazing reversal of governmental decisions coinciding with the election were typical of Ford's style throughout the Republican contest. The most important decisions concerned the reconstitution of the Federal Election Commission and the Ford administration's decision to intervene in a Supreme Court appeal of court-ordered busing.

In response to a Supreme Court ruling ordering a restructuring of the Federal Elections Commission, Congress placed before the President a bill implementing the court directive. Until the President signed the bill and appointed new members to the commission, the FEC would be unable to refund candidates for legitimate expenses under the campaign spending law. The FEC had been in limbo for over seven weeks, and, once reconstituted, Ronald Reagan stood to gain the most in reimbursed funding.

The bill reconstituting the commission reached the President's desk in the first week of May, but the details of the bill had been known to the President for at least a week. Nevertheless, the President delayed the signing until it could be reviewed by counsel, the Office of Management and Budget, and Republican congressional leadership, despite a host of candidates' urgent need for money.

But on the horizon loomed the Michigan primary. A Ford loss in his home state would be devastating. On May 11 the President reluctantly signed the legislation reviving the FEC's major powers and announced he was sending the names of his nominees to the Senate. On the day of the Michigan primary, Ford announced he was holding up $2 million in campaign subsidies for another week by refusing to swear in five standing members of the FEC until the Senate confirmed the sixth, the only Presidential appointment that differed from the original FEC members.

The President had already delayed the dispersal of campaign money to his rival for two weeks pending a meaningless review of legislation. This latest action meant that none of the accumulated subsidies would be available for the six Presidential primaries on May 25. Had the President simply sworn in the five members of the FEC already confirmed on May 18, payments could have been made within an hour or two. At that point, Reagan had unpaid claims in excess of $1 million. Of that figure, nearly $400,000 had already been audited for immediate payment. Of course, none of the Democratic candidates could receive reimbursement money either, and while it is doubtful that by that point the additional money would have changed the ultimate conclusion of the Democratic contest, we will never know.