Media Plays Fast and Loose with Ford Legacy

When President Gerald Ford stood for election in 1976, the Press mercilessly assaulted the 38th president for his pardon of Richard Nixon. One of the most decent men ever to rule in the Oval Office, after decades of service in the military and government, Gerald Ford was painted as a co-conspirator in Tricky Dick's crimes against the democratic process. Ford never second guessed his decision to spare the nation the spectacle of a presidential criminal trial. A cynical and blood-thirsty America Left were equally unwavering during a calculated character assassination, resulting in the disaster that was the administration of Jimmy Carter.

Today, when the network news programs and newspaper retrospectives recall Ford's decency and all-around goodness in the face of the great trials of the 1970s, it is important to remember the agents responsible for depriving the nation of Ford's leadership in an hour of national darkness.

Senators Sort-of for Free Speech

The foundational tenant of modern American politics is that free speech, defined as the ability to have an opinion without fear of persecution or violence, applies only to those championing Liberal viewpoints.

If you stubbornly refuse to accept the reality presented above as fact, friends, enjoy this juicy news nugget from across the Atlantic in the United Kingdom. A British Lord has called for the resignations of United States Senators Rockafeller and Snowe, after the duo demanded that ExxonMobil cease funding scientists disagreeing with "mainstream" global warming hysteria. Has our political situation deteriorated to a point when European lords are left to rebuke United States congressmen for undemocratic acts? Apparently so, and everyone should interpret the Rockafeller/Snowe manifesto as the genuine threat to liberty it represents and the unbelievable embarrassment their letter creates for the United States.

The same elected officials that loudly protest denying Muslim terrorists a night of shut-eye at Gitmo would just as soon fine or jail an American for disagreeing with Al Gore on climate change. And voters harbor little respect for federal servants? I don't believe it...

Of course, if you are an uber-environmentalist friend of all living things ugly and beautiful, you are not required to agree with me. That's your right, at least until the 110th Congress is seated.

Bush Heeds the Battle Call?

President Bush may be on the verge of sending more troops to Iraq, representing what may be one of the most controversial moves of his tenure in office at a time when his approval rating remains mired in the mid thirties.

Although prospective presidential front runner John McCain and the incoming Democratic Intelligence Chair both recommend an infusion of troops, the reality of what must be done to win in Iraq will not sit well with many talking heads and weary Americans. Eli Lake of the NY Sun has even suggested that Bush's move could be a "parting shot" at his old rival McCain, whose presidential chances may wither if the troop reinforcement strategy fails. Respectfully, I do not think that Bush has proven himself to exercise such an extreme level of pettiness. Like Lincoln in late 1862, coming off electoral defeats and military thrashings, President Bush may have finally realized the necessity of hard war and be ready to engage the enemy aggressively in Iraq. Time is the only measure that counts in this respect.

Certainly, as Charles Krauthammer has observed, the complete failure of the Iraq Study Group Report to inspire anything but depression among those alert to this issue has given the president a unique opportunity to right the ship in the 11th hour of his power to do so. Insert cynicism here, but any honestly-American witness to our contemporary struggles in the Middle East owes his or her country some optimism and an earnest hope for the best out of Bush in the next couple weeks.