Word: pardoner
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Single Indictment. The Ford aides said that they could not explain his insertion of a reference to Nixon's health in the pardon announcement. The advance text did not contain it. They were aware that Ford had been concerned about published reports of Nixon's moody emotional state, but they insisted that neither the physical nor mental health of the former President was the major influence on the timing of the pardon...
There were problems with these explanations. The presidential pardoning power, including Nixon's authority to pardon him self before leaving office, had been widely discussed, so it seemed unlikely that Ford was all that unaware of his authority. Jaworski, moreover, was not poised to throw the book at Nixon. He was prepared to seek a single indictment for conspiring to obstruct justice in the cover-up?but not until the conspiracy-trial jury had been selected and sequestered. To the contrary, Jaworski had submitted to the White House, at Buchen's request, a memo from his top deputy, Henry...
...genuine compassion for Nixon, Ford took a superficial look at the other factors?the legal ramifications, the political impact, the public reaction?and failed to think them through. Buoyed by his Honeymoon reception and seeking a Trumanesque reputation for decisiveness, he acted immediately and impulsively on his determination to pardon Nixon. If eventually he was going to pardon him, as he had in effect indicated he would in his Aug. 28 press conference, then why not now? A diehard defender of Nixon's innocence until the ample contrary evidence became unchallengeable, Ford by this theory appreciated neither the seriousness...
...practical bargaining leverage, Ford meekly yielded. Columnist Mary McGrory wrote last week that "Ford is still Vice President where Nixon is concerned." Ford does indeed have a reputation for speaking before an issue is thought through, and the fact that he apparently consulted very few people on the pardon makes this theory more believable...
Once Ford learned that a Nixon trial would probably not begin until late in 1975 and that appeals might take even longer to resolve, he knew that he might face the pardon issue uncomfortably close to his own campaign for election to the presidency in 1976. Rather than raise all of the old Watergate divisions through a pardon then, he decided to act now, clearing his personal political decks of the Nixon issue well in advance, freeing himself from having questions on Nixon raised at every press conference. There is no evidence for this theory at all, other than Ford...