Word: pardoner
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Later, the inside White House version was that Hushen had been hurriedly shoehorned in between other Ford appointments to ask how he should reply to any press questions about Mrs. Dean's statement. Believing that it involved a pardon request, Ford replied quickly: "Just say it's under consideration." Another aide suggested that this implied positive action, and Ford, again replying too quickly, added: "Okay, say 'under study,' and don't say any more." Hushen followed those instructions literally, and thus the initial misunderstanding arose. That does not, however, explain why it was not more quickly cleared...
...complete his plans, which were turning out to be "more complex" than had been expected. The widespread assumption was that he did not want to create a new furor by applying stiff conditions to the war objectors' amnesty when he had just given Nixon a "full, free and absolute" pardon. Despite the vast differences between the two issues, they had become practically and politically linked. That fact of life was recognized by the White House in scheduling a Ford press conference for this week: Hushen suggested that questions on both the reasons for pardoning Nixon and Ford's amnesty plans...
That press conference can hardly occur too soon. It was Ford's failure to explain fully the timing of his pardon of Nixon that raised most doubts about Ford's candor and perceptiveness, as well as questions about the competence of his staff in handling a White House crisis. All last week, Ford had almost nothing to say publicly about his decision, beyond a stoic "I knew it would be controversial." His aides concede, however, that the magnitude of the uproar had not been anticipated. At first, Ford...
Ford's explanation of the pardon on that Sunday, while strong on sentiment, simply did not sound well-reasoned. He said that he had learned that it might take a year or more for Nixon to be brought to trial and all appeals exhausted, and that even then the courts might rule that Nixon had not had a fair trial. Meanwhile "ugly passions would again be aroused, our people would again be polarized in their opinions, and the credibility of our free institutions of Government would again be challenged at home and abroad." It was time, Ford said, to "firmly...
Cooled Passions. Thus Ford rationalized that a Nixon pardon would contribute to "the greatest good of all the people of the United States," his overriding aim. Yet the Nixon pardon raised far graver questions about "the credibility of our free institutions" than would a proper and probably illuminating trial. One of the few consolations in the entire Watergate affair had been that those institutions had persevered against the most calculated cover-up efforts of the highest official in the land; now the judicial process was being aborted in Nixon's favor...