[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 2 (Friday, January 5, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E30]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 HONORING THE LIFE OF GERALD FORD, 38TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

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                            HON. ARTUR DAVIS

                               of alabama

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, January 5, 2007

  Mr. DAVIS of Alabama. Madam Speaker, we overlooked Gerald Ford's 
significance when he served as President. His tenure was only slightly 
longer than a congressional term, a cruel irony for a politician whose 
political career was so grounded in the by-ways of the House. He was 
hardly a master politician, if the term refers to the winning of 
elections or the swift dispatch of opposition: Ford came within an inch 
of not being re-nominated, and he lost in the general election to the 
most obscure winner of our times.
  This week, as we mourn Ford's passing, his legacy is much clearer: 
first, he gracefully presided over the aftermath of Richard Nixon's 
forced removal, and over the culmination of our debacle in Vietnam. Had 
he gotten either moment wrong, the country might have been ripped into 
two, bitter competing halves. As we contemplate the mistakes subsequent 
presidents have made, it is a virtue that Gerald Ford made not a single 
major error in judgment: he did not blunder into any ill-chosen wars, 
and as much as an opposition dominated Congress thwarted him, he never 
resorted to subterfuge in an effort to tip the scales.
  Then there is the graceful way Ford practiced politics. The challenge 
from Ronald Reagan was perilous because even in 1976, Ford was not of a 
philosophic kin with most Republican primary voters. A less principled 
president would have demagogued on issues like busing or affirmative 
action; certainly, he might have abandoned the detente that was a major 
contributor to taming the Soviet Union. A modern, win-at all cost 
politician would have savaged an unknown like Jimmy Carter. The fact is 
that the 1976 election season was at once breathtakingly close and 
remarkably civil.
  Imagine if Gerald Ford's major value, the cultivation of common 
ground, had dominated the last two fractious decades. Our two major 
political philosophies would not have been at irreconcilable odds, with 
both tending to treat each battle as if it were the ultimate one or as 
if we weren't bound to share a future together. We mourn Gerald Ford's 
decency and we also mourn the loss of the political character that left 
the stage when we retired him.

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