Then... as if the whole nauseous Nixon saga isn't enough, Ford inexplicably pardons him. I'm sure Ford would like to come clean on the arm cracking that was going on. He had no choice - all the godfathers spoiled his soup.

on the the cover up commission that whitewashed the assassination of JFK. Ford was an old style team player as a politician. In exchange for becoming president without the hassle of having to campaign for it? Hell he would cheerfully have pardoned Hitler for the invasion of Poland.

I have to agree. What a disappointment Ford turned out to be. Now we all know why Nixon chose Ford to be his VP. Dick was tricky.

I despised ol' Tricky Dick Nixon but I always admitted that within certain limitations the man was truly a brilliant politician.

Brilliant like a reflexive shark. Nimble like a reflexive shark. Agile like a ... a shark's a shark. The system works if it's a group of sharks. Anyway, Ford, if he were a smarter person, would have looked at this document, maybe read, considered it - "Intelligence Community Decision Book for the President." It was written for him (by Dick Cheney).

The 243-page document (pdf) addresses basic questions of executive authority, congressional oversight of intelligence, covert action, domestic surveillance, budget secrecy and more. The briefing book was completed after the eruption of the intelligence scandals of the 1970s, but prior to the passage of the Foreign Intelligence Act of 1978, and reflects the uncertainties of the times. The title page of the 243-page document bears the name of then-White House chief of staff Dick Cheney.