Ford Urges Healing of Partisan Rancor

Former President Gerald Ford, who helped heal the nation from the wounds of Watergate, made a powerful appeal Wednesday for a healing in the rancorous relationship between Republicans and Democrats.

Official Washington, led by President Clinton and bipartisan leaders of Congress, turned out in droves for a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda in which Ford, 86, and his wife, Betty Ford, 81, received the highest award Congress can give to living Americans, the Congressional Gold Medal.

Ford, a gray eminence representing a bygone era in a rotunda decorated with paintings and statues of famous Americans and historic events, did not let the moment go by without gently chiding Republicans and Democrats for the bickering and bloodletting that has dominated politics in recent years.

Recalling the “arm-in-arm relationship” between the parties in making Cold War decisions for 50 years, Ford said he learned early during his 25 years as a Republican member of the House that “most people are mostly good most of the time.”

“Indeed, as far as I’m concerned there are no enemies in Congress, just temporary opponents who might vote with you on the next roll call,” Ford said.

Ford said that “healthy partisanship is the lifeblood of American democracy” and that he remained convinced that “politics is a very noble calling.”

“Yet the clash of ideas should never be confused with a holy war. Some people equate civility with weakness and compromise with surrender. I strongly disagree,” Ford said.

Ford was honored for having guided the nation past the travails of Watergate. He took over as president when Nixon resigned in 1974 under the weight of Watergate. Ford angered many by pardoning Nixon, but the move helped put the scandal behind the divided country.

“It was easy enough for us to criticize you, because we were caught up in the moment,” Clinton told him. “You didn’t get caught up in the moment. You were right for the controversial decisions you made to keep the country together, and I thank you for that.”

Mrs. Ford was recognized for speaking publicly about her ordeal after undergoing surgery for breast cancer in 1974, and being equally frank about her successful battle against drug and alcohol dependency, which led to establishment of the Betty Ford Center for treatment of alcohol and drug abuse in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

Mrs. Ford said that in spite of her 2 1/2 years in the White House, she still feels Congress “will always be our true home,” telling House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.): “Yours is the only job Jerry really ever wanted.”

Speaker after speaker offered praise for Ford for his role in the post-Watergate period, as the Fords’ children, Steve and Susan Ford, beamed in the front row.

Democrats, who constantly complain about how majority Republicans treat them, talked about Ford’s bipartisanship as the House minority leader. “That legacy needs to be revived,” said the current House minority leader, Democrat Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri. “I hope in a way that today’s ceremony serves as a reminder [of] the need to work together.”

Republicans, many of whom do not trust Clinton, stressed Ford’s honesty.

“Men and women on both sides of the aisle always thought they could trust him,” said John Engler, the Republican governor of Ford’s home state of Michigan.

In the end, Ford was overwhelmed, noting that the speeches resembled funeral eulogies.

“I know it’s customary for former presidents to lie in state in this magnificent rotunda,” he said. “Listening to all those fulsome tributes, I wondered if maybe you weren’t jumping the gun just a bit,” he added.