Actually, upon further thought, Ford may mark the beginning of the Republican strategy of the figurehead presidency, i.e., a useful talking head occupies the office, but the real policy decisions are made by less-spotlighted figures. Face it, every Republican presidency of the last 30 years has returned the same cadre of goons to power that have been fucking things up since Nixon. The only difference is the name on the Oval Office door.
So who was making Ford’s decisions? VP Nelson Rockefeller?
Hmmm . . . Bob Woodward reports that the real reason Nixon tapped Ford for VP was that the two had, unknown to most even in DC, been close friends since the 1940s.
Henry Kissinger - Secretary of State under Nixon and Ford, Appointed (unsuccessfully) by Bush II to head the 9/11 Commission in 2002, reported in 2006 to have been consulting regularly with Bush and Cheney.
James Schlesinger - Chaired AEC and CIA under Nixon, served as Sec. of Defense under Nixon and Ford, serves on multiple advisory committees under BushII.
Donald Rumsfeld - multiple cabinet posts under Nixon, White House Chief of Staff and Secretary of Defense under Ford, Special Envoy to the Middle East under Reagan as well as posts on over two dozen advisory boards, Secretary of Defense under Bush II.
Dick Cheney - White House Chief of Staff under Ford, Secretary of Defense under Bush I, Vice President under Bush II.
Paul O’Neill - Deputy Director of OMB under Ford, approached by BushI to be Sec. of Defense, but he recommended Cheney for the job and chaired an advisory committee instead.Secretary of the Treasury under BushII until he was forced out.
John Snow - Held several Assistant Secretary positions in Transporation under Nixon and Ford, culminating in being named Administrator of the NHTSA by Ford. Served on many boards, panels, and commissions under Reagan. Co-Chairman of the National Commission on Financial Institution Reform, Recovery and Enforcement (the people that said "let’s bail out the S&Ls) under Bush I. Secretary of the Treasury under Bush II.
Henry Paulson - Pentagon Staff Assistant and Assistant to John Ehrlichman under Nixon. Secretary of the Treasury under BushII.
These are the ones with the longest continuity. There are plenty of other names in the Bush Administrations past and present who are familiar as far back as Reagan, and others from the Nixon/Ford/Reagan years who are no longer active. But given the quality of the decisions coming out of the whole group, I’d say there’s far too little turnover.
They decide what they want to do, figure out which Republican candidate is the most electable, then form a “transition team” to figure out which area of the government each of them gets to fuck up this time around. The president just smiles or frowns for the camera as directed.
I posit this system got its start with Ford (who was nowhere near as formidable a presence as Nixon), was perfected under Reagan, when, as Paul Slansky put it, an actor was playing the president, and continues to this day.
I am intrigued by your ideas, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
I forgot to mention, of course:
George Herbert Walker Bush: Ambassador to the UN and Chairman of the RNC under Nixon, US Liaison Office Chief in China and CIA Director under Ford, Vice President under Reagan, and 41st President of the United States. I hear he has some sort of “in” with the current President.
What message did the pardon send to Cheney, Rumsfield and Bush. They should have toasted Nixon and Agnew . Perhaps the following pols would have been less likely to blatantly stretch the limits.
On the evidence, not much.