Word: democratics
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Despite the experts' grim predictions, the tone of the meeting was generally convivial. In a flight of hyperbole, Ford told the group that if it succeeded in finding answers to inflation, "there will be statues of each of you in every city park throughout the U.S." Democrat Walter Heller remarked: "It is refreshing to be in a White House open to a little laughter again, and to dissent...
Several of Ford's political friends, either by their choice or Nixon's, had not been in the White House for years: former New York Republican Senator Charles Goodell, a longtime Nixon foe; Michigan Representative Donald Riegle Jr., who deserted the G.O.P. to become a Democrat early in 1973; and Democratic Senator Philip Hart. The stage was set for the transfer of the world's most powerful political office from Richard Nixon, even then airborne over Missouri on his way to California and retirement, to Gerald Ford...
Ford was pre-eminently a loyal party workhorse and proud of it. He could be counted on to vote against most all Democratic legislation, worthy or not. He voted no on subsidized housing, aid to education, Medicare, the antipoverty program, minimum wage bills. In 1973, he was one of 70 Congressmen to vote to sustain all of Nixon's vetoes. On occasion, he has taken a more conservative stand than the White House. As a representative of an auto-manufacturing state, he voted against using any of the highway trust funds to pay for mass transit. "If Jerry...
Sooner or later, Ford will undoubtedly remake his Cabinet and the top White House staff. In Washington the betting is that at least one major job will be offered to a Democrat. Almost certainly Henry Kissinger will stay on as of Secretary of State until January 1977. Other Cabinet members who will probably be asked to carry on until the end of the term are Earl Butz of Agriculture and James Schlesinger of Defense. Last spring Ford considered, if he became President, firing Schlesinger because he seemed ineffective in dealing with Congress. That proved not to be the case...
Almost nobody had a harsh word to say about Gerald Ford. Senator Charles Percy of Illinois spoke of Ford's ability to work smoothly with Congress; Senator Alan Cranston, the California Democrat, noted Ford's ability "to reach out, to consult and to conciliate." From the Colorado Rockies where he was vacationing, former Kansas Governor Alf Landon, the Republican presidential candidate of 1936, watched Ford's performance and was impressed "with the promptness with which he is making his decisions; he's going about his job without hesitation or delay...