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Politics

Untainted by Washington - or Watergate

The nation mourns Gerald Ford, an unpretentious president who kept his "Main Street values" and helped a nation heal.

By BILL ADAIR
Published January 3, 2007

WASHINGTON - On a day of pageantry and fond tributes, Gerald R. Ford was remembered Tuesday as a genial lawmaker, a courageous president and a humble man.

Former President George Bush praised the Michigan Republican for his integrity and said it was "the ideal remedy for the deception of Watergate."

Henry Kissinger, secretary of state during Ford's 29-month presidency, told a gathering of more than 3,000 at the National Cathedral that Ford was an important world leader with significant accomplishments in the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

Tom Brokaw, a former network TV anchor who covered the Ford presidency, noted that when Ford played for the University of Michigan football team, he was an offensive lineman, a quiet breed that doesn't seek the limelight. Brokaw said Ford brought "Main Street values" to the White House.

"He knew who he was, and he didn't need consultants or gurus to change him," Brokaw said.

Ford, 93, died Dec. 26 at his home in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Over the weekend, thousands of people lined up to pay tribute to his flag-draped casket in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.

On Tuesday morning, Ford's casket was briefly put in repose in front of the Senate chamber, to mark his service as Senate president when he was former President Richard Nixon's vice president. A military unit then carried the casket down the Capitol steps as the Navy Band played Ruffles and Flourishes and Hail to the Chief. Members of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment- the "Old Guard" - fired a 21-gun salute.

The hearse and its motorcade traveled through Washington to the National Cathedral, slowing on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House. Hundreds of Bush administration staffers stood on the sidewalk to say goodbye to the nation's 38th president.

As the hearse made its way to the church, the cathedral's bell rang 38 times.

The funeral was attended by President Bush; his father, former President Bush; former presidents Carter and Clinton; Nancy Reagan, the widow of former President Ronald Reagan; and hundreds of other world and national leaders. It provided a stately tribute to man known for his modesty. It was fitting that, before the service, the U.S. Marine Orchestra played Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man.

As the military pallbearers carried the casket down the long aisle, their heels clicked on the marble floor. Ford's widow, Betty, was ushered to her seat by President Bush. Ford's daughter, Susan Ford Bales, read a passage from James 1:19-25 that seemed to sum up her father's style: "Let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger."

President Bush described Ford as "a rock of stability" who made gutsy decisions during his brief presidency. He dispatched the Marines to rescue sailors on the ship Mayaguez, he signed the Helsinki Accords and "he made the tough and decent decision to pardon President Nixon, even though that decision probably cost him the presidential election," Bush said.

His father described Ford as a man of integrity who was the perfect antidote for the Watergate scandal.

"The very sight of Chief Justice Burger administering the oath of office to our 38th president instantly restored the honor of the Oval Office and helped America begin to turn the page on one of our saddest chapters," the former president said.

He added that "few if any of our public leaders could have stepped into the breach and rekindled our national faith as did President Gerald R. Ford."

Throughout his career, Ford kept his sense of humor.

Former President Bush said Ford wasn't bothered that, on Saturday Night Live, actor Chevy Chase had played him as a klutz. Bush said Ford understood that "being able to laugh at yourself is essential in public life."

The former president also recounted Ford's comment that he was becoming a better golfer because "I'm hitting fewer spectators."

Kissinger said Ford was humble.

"Never having aspired to national office, he was not consumed by driving ambition. In his understated way, he did his duty as a leader, not as a performer playing to the gallery."

Ford was appointed as vice president by Nixon in 1973 after the resignation of Spiro Agnew during a bribery investigation. On Aug. 9, 1974, after Nixon resigned to avoid impeachment proceedings stemming from the Watergate scandal, Ford became the only U.S. president who wasn't elected to the office or the vice presidency.

After the funeral, Ford's casket was flown to Grand Rapids, Mich., where it was greeted by the marching band from the University of Michigan, his alma mater.

Among those on the plane were Carter, the Democrat who defeated Ford in 1976 and became his friend, and Carter's wife, Rosalynn.

In Grand Rapids, which the Nebraska native adopted as his hometown and represented in Congress for a quarter century, Ford's presidential museum was opening its doors for an 18-hour public viewing, stretching overnight, before his burial this afternoon.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report. Times Washington bureau chief Bill Adair can be reached at adair@sptimes.com or 202463-0575.

MR. PRESIDENT, MEET 'THE CHICKEN'

Tom Brokaw, a former NBC anchor who covered the presidency of Gerald Ford, told the gathering at the National Cathedral on Tuesday how James Naughton, then a reporter with the New York Times, had grown weary of listening to President Ford's stock campaign speech. In 1976 Naughton decided to wear a chicken mask to a presidential news conference.

Naughton, a St. Petersburg resident who is president emeritus of the Poynter Institute, got encouragement from Ford and his chief of staff, Dick Cheney. "In the next news cycle, the chicken head was a bigger story than the president," Brokaw said. "And no one was more pleased than the man that we honor here today in this august ceremony."

Brokaw said Ford asked him months ago to speak at the funeral. "I think he wanted to be sure that the White House press corps was represented - the writers, correspondents and producers, the cameramen, photographers, the technicians - and the chicken."

[Last modified January 3, 2007, 05:54:36]