Gerald Ford and Newt Gingrich ruined America

[AllentownJake]

This country would be a very different place if Gerald Ford had not pardoned Richard Milhouse Nixon. Do not get me wrong. Richard Nixon's crimes in hindsight are petty theft compared to what his successors have done. All of them.

The precedent of forgiving previous administrations of their wrongdoings has gone on ever since. I'm not looking for there to be a witch hunt after every administration leaves, that might inspire a dictatorship, however when law breaking becomes public, it needs to be prosecuted. Citizen Nixon should have been placed in jail after his term, and I say this as a person who is a fan of some of the things he implemented (OSHA,EPA,Price controls). In a lot of ways he is more liberal than Barack Obama currently is. The first time we looked forward has encouraged us to look forward way too much, and the things we look forward on, are increasingly and increasingly dangerous and vile.

The second person is New Gingrich, who after not being able to beat a President electorally went on a 4 year witch hunt looking for anything to beat Bill Clinton. They gutted the law for a Special Prosecutor and it has ensured limited oversight or fear in the Executive Branch ever since. It has also made the notion of Impeachment a partisan affair, where people get into teams, instead of looking to see if the officeholder has engaged in high crimes.

[Orrex]

1. Predecessors?

Just checking.

[AllentownJake]

2. Need coffee

Thanks.

[Orrex]

8. !

:evilgrin:

(incidentally, K/R)

[havocmom]

3. Newt also taught a lot of up & coming GOP pols that Goebbels' methods trump truth

and it's OK to shut down the government as part of a petty, personal tantrum.

Thank you, Jake, for the thought provoking OPs you start our days with.

[Romulox]

4. I'm going to unrec. this. Bill Clinton is responsible for his own craven-ness.

:hi:

[AllentownJake]

5. I have my fair share of angst about the Clinton Presidency

However, the impeachment affair, was absolutely insane and has led to a 20 year battle where we fight over sexual indiscretion instead of policy and it has taken a fair number of heads on both sides, including the asshole who started it.

[Romulox]

12. The impeachment continues to provide an IDEAL smokescreen for how terrible a President he was.

And all these years later... :shrug:

[laughingliberal]

24. I agree wholeheartedly with this

These witch hunts over the sexual activities of our elected officials are a distraction and have cost us some very effective officials. I see no good coming of this as long as the activity is legal and consensual. How much better off would we be if we had left the Puritans home when this country was being settled?

[AllentownJake]

28. The descendents of the Puritans don't give a fuck

It is their randy slave raping cousins that are causing this shit.

[laughingliberal]

29. Ah, a good point nt

[havocmom]

6. Yeah, if he hadn't been writing that eulogy, en route to a state funeral,

the newt wouldn't have gotten his knickers in a twist about not getting to sit up front with Bill, and the government shut-down would never have happened.

And 'twas newt, not Bill who taught so many pols that truth wasn't as important as saying what you want people to believe over and over until the GOP had enough brain washed fools nodding that they could nearly take down the elected president on a whim.

edited for typo.

[Romulox]

11. I'm talking about selling out the Left of the Party. Newt Gingrich didn't make him do that.

Nor did Newt force Hillary to so proudly adopt the "Third Way" mantle. :hi:

[AllentownJake]

13. Bill Clinton abandoned 50 year of party history and embraced banking

The party has been fucking schizophrenic ever since.

[Romulox]

15. Bill Clinton could've EASILY been Ronald Regan's Veep.

In retrospect, Bush 41 was an aberration; Clinton represents the true continuity of Regan's legacy.

[AllentownJake]

17. Bush and Reagan hated each other more than LBJ and Kennedy

and their ideologies were world's apart.

[Captain Hilts]

20. Carter started the wave of de-regulation. nt

[AllentownJake]

22. Yes he did

and he got a Primary challenger for it. People who talk about Ronald Reagan winning in 1980 often forget Carter's betrayal to party principles that led for the hole that Ronald Reagan walked in through at a time when there shouldn't have been a GOP President for another 12 years due to Nixon.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. Proud to be #5

[cali]

9. Ridiculous on so very many levels.

[Orrex]

10. That's the most cogent rebuttal in the history of rhetoric

I've never read anything more cogenter.

[KansDem]

14. I've been wondering the same thing...

It is obvious now we have two "justice" systems: one for the "connected" and one for the rest of us.

I remember the Clinton witch hunt when GOPer after GOPer got up before Congress and, teary-eyed, asked rhetorically how he was going to explain to his son/grandson that "the President lied."

What a pack of fucking drama queens!

Since then, we've had crimes on a gargantuan scale -- and nobody wants to prosecute.

I've lost respect for our elected leaders and public servants -- they only want to serve themselves and the oligarchy.

I read about petty malefactors being put away in local, county and state courts while the big fish swim away unhooked. My take on it is the local, county and state law enforcement officials are building a past record to run on for high office -- and reap the rewards.

After all, Bernie Madoff's in prison because he had the audacity to rob rich folks. If he had swindled poor or working-class folks, he would have gotten off with a fine, while the poor/working folks would have been demonized as the culprits ("sub-prime loans," anyone?).

[AllentownJake]

16. It all started with Nixon and the first time the country looked forward

Ever since than, people have been becoming more and more brazen in their activities.

Nixon in a federal prison, even for a year, would have been a very scary thing for those in Washington.

[Way2go]

18. Excellent post

Gerald Ford earned his bones by assisting directly in the coverup of JFK's assassination and the framing of Oswald. Sometimes, it's hard to see a big difference between how people at high levels of our government operate differently from the Mafia or the Madoffs.

[AllentownJake]

27. Why do you think he was picked

He was brought in as a cleaner.

[Captain Hilts]

19. NO! Nixon's crimes were FAR worse than "petty theft." nt

[AllentownJake]

21. With the exception of Carter and Ford

Nixon's successors, all of them, make him look like a fucking boy scout.

[Captain Hilts]

23. They weren't opening peoples' mail, using the CIA to monitor domestic political

opponents, ordering the landing lights turned off at airports expecting planes of political opponents, compiling enemies lists...

J. Edgar Hoover was horrified by some of the stuff Nixon was doing.

When you're paranoid about Carol Channing and Joe Namath, you've got a serious problem.

[AllentownJake]

25. Yes Nixon's paranoid delusions were crazy

He was nuts, but overall, his crimes were about satisfying his crazy desire. Presidents since than have been committing crimes not out of paranoid delusions, but for personal profit.

[Motown_Johnny]

26. I think Reagan's economic policies are even worse.

Not that I disagree with the OP. I just think that "Trickle down economics" and it's continued impact on politics may be fatal to our country as we know it.

[Loudmxr]

30. Newt is a liar. Always remember that.