Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

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Meanwhile, as the nation mourns the death of former President Gerald Ford, we are now learning he strongly disagreed with President Bush on the war in Iraq. And in a never before published interview, he bluntly called the administration's justification a big mistake.

CNN's Brian Todd has been following that story all day. Brian, what's the scoop?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ed, this is an extraordinary sequence in Gerald Ford's story. We now find out that nearly 2 1/2 years before his death, Ford cut a deal with Washington's most powerful journalist. Telling Bob Woodward of "The Washington Post" you cannot print what I'm saying until after my death.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): Gerald Ford posthumously takes aim at his fellow Republicans in the White House and the war they started. Ford's frustration targets President Bush and two of his own former aides pictured here with him in 1975.

VOICE OF FORMER PRESIDENT GERALD FORD: I think Rumsfeld, Cheney and the president made a big mistake in justifying going into the war in Iraq. They put the emphasis on weapons of mass destruction.

TODD: During the July 2004 interview, Ford tells Bob Woodward he wouldn't have ordered the invasion, would have tried sanctions or other means.

BOB WOODWARD, "THE WASHINGTON POST": The body language was one of consternation, unease. Here is this very seasoned, experienced politician. He just did not buy the Iraq war.

TODD: But Ford has a broader problem with Bush's foreign policy.

VOICE OF FORMER PRESIDENT GERALD FORD: And I just don't think we should go hellfire damnation around the globe freeing people, unless it is directly related to our own national security.

TODD: Ford, a moderate in his day also wonders aloud about Dick Cheney's perceived ideological shift. Dick Cheney, he says, was a first class chief of staff. But I think Cheney has become much more pugnacious as vice president. Neither Cheney's office nor a White House spokeswoman would comment on Ford's criticism. But CNN contributor and fellow conservative William Bennett is disappointed.

WILLIAM BENNETT, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: You put the bomb in the tape recorder and it goes off after he's out of reach. I think that was a departure from the normal Gerry Ford that we know.

TODD: Still, one historian says the release of this after Ford's death carries what he calls tremendous gravity as for the protocol of former presidents keeping quiet about their successors.

RICHARD SHENKMAN, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Harry Truman criticized President Eisenhower. You had Jimmy Carter criticizing president after president. This is a rule that is almost made to be broken.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: But in that interview, Gerald Ford also let go on Henry Kissinger saying of his former secretary of state, quote, "he had the thinnest skin of any public figure I ever knew." A Kissinger aide says he is out of the country and would not comment on Gerald Ford's remarks -- Ed and Suzanne.

HENRY: Well you know, Brian, it's interesting. In fact, it seems from the interview, in a way Henry Kissinger was almost getting on Gerald Ford's nerves at certain point in those deliberations.

TODD: You do get that impression. And in the article, Bob Woodward goes into great detail about that. Saying at one point when he decided to take half of Kissinger's portfolio away from him, he decided to take the job of national security adviser away from him. He did it on his own despite rumors there was an orchestration going on by Rumsfeld and Cheney and others. Ford said he did that on his own. He said Kissinger was very, very upset about it. He said this is going perceived as you demoting me, Mr. President. Ford said no, it's not that. There are some fascinating details about their innermost discussions in the Oval Office at that time.

MALVEAUX: Fascinating indeed. Thank you very much Brian Todd.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) MALVEAUX: As we've reported, we now learn now that the late President Ford had strong reservations about the Iraqi war, expressing them in a never-published interview with the "Washington Post".

HENRY: David Gergen is a former adviser to four different presidents, including Gerald Ford. We asked him about President Ford's just revealed remarks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID GERGEN, FMR. PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: These are pretty tough comments. And they were made, remember, a long time ago, 2004, much earlier than the time when most of the country turned against the war.

So, I think this is damaging. I think it complicates the President Bush's efforts to, as soon as the, you know, this funeral process is over -- President Bush clearly is itching to go to the country and present his plans for Iraq. And now he's got this shadow cast by Gerald Ford in addition to all the other shadows from the Baker-Hamilton commission and the public rebuke that he got in the elections in November. He's got a very, very big hill to climb now to convince people that he's on the right new course.

MALVEAUX: Well, David, considering that many past presidents, of course, following protocol, have a policy not to criticize the one that is currently in office. Do you think this was a different case, a different scenario, considering the casualties, the cost of the Iraq war?

Do you think that Gerald Ford should have spoken out?

Did he have an obligation or a responsibility to basically speak his mind?

GERGEN: You mean way back when?

(CROSSTALK)

GERGEN: ... spoken out in 2004. Well, I think, you know, I think the one thing we have to be careful about here is that he spoke out in 2004 with the understanding that it wouldn't be published for some time after his death, or until Bob Woodward wrote a book. And he couldn't have known then that it would come out at a particularly fateful and awkward moment for President Bush when the president was very low in the polls. And this is -- you know, therefore the damage is much more intense than had it come out, say, in 2005, when -- or even in 2004, when the president was riding higher in public opinion.

So, you know, I just don't -- I'm sure he didn't want to hurt President Bush. He does respect George W. Bush. He obviously respects the father. Remember, he appointed the father to go out to the CIA. And he was a big, big fan of the father, a big fan of the Bush family. So I'm -- and this is not personal. In fact, as you know, he has a wonderful relationship with Don Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, thought Dick Cheney was a first class chief of staff, as he said. What he did believe was that -- President Ford in this was classic. Ford's statement, he puts the country first. He puts it above his personal relationships. He retains the friendships but says, hey, look, guys, this is just wrong.

MALVEAUX: But David, I mean, beyond -- beyond his relationship with President Bush and his staff, do you think he had an obligation to the American people from 2004, up until the point where he still had his physical faculties, his mental faculties, to talk about what he believed was a big mistake?

GERGEN: Well, I have to struggle with that. I'm of mixed minds with that.

Would it been helpful had he spoken out? Sure. But there is a -- there is a fraternity among ex-presidents that they try not to micromanage their successors. It's sort of regarded as bad form to do that.

And I'm not sure that he would feel that it's his personal responsibility. And, you know, I have to say, particularly just after President Ford's death -- and we're all saluting him, as we should -- I don't want to wander in and take a shot at him for doing that, for not speaking out.

I -- look, I think he left many, many contributions to this country. And I'd like to leave it there.

HENRY: And David, just to wrap it up now, to bring it...

GERGEN: Sure.

HENRY: ... and push it forward a bit to President Bush, we all know at the beginning of next month he's likely -- President Bush is expected to give a big speech in January, laying out a new strategy in Iraq.

Given the Ford comments but given the other factors you mentioned, like the election, the Baker-Hamilton report, et cetera, what does the president need to accomplish in this speech?

GERGEN: You know, I don't think he can convince the country right now to rally to the war in Iraq. I think what he can possibly do is buy time. And a little more patience, give me a little more time.

But time is clearly -- time is clearly against him. It's running out rapidly. And I think that Joe Biden's comments yesterday against a surge in troops indicate he's going to have a real fight on his hands if he calls for a surge in troops, which looks now as if it's the leading option.

And he's clearly rejected the idea of talking to Iran, rejected the idea of talking to Syria. He's rejected all of the underlying premises, major premises of Baker-Hamilton. You know, so I think he's going to have a fight on his hands. It's going to be a very divided country after he -- after he completes that. And his hope has to be that he can somehow have enough time politically with the Congress, with the public, to go forward with his plans.

HENRY: But given those challenges, when you say he needs to try to stall for more time, essentially, he's tried to do that before.

GERGEN: Right.

HENRY: What would you tell him?

GERGEN: He's been successful about stalling for time.

HENRY: But what do you tell him about a troop surge? Should he do that or not?

Some think he'd be doubling down and that it could -- could get the U.S. in deeper and it could -- could make the situation worse. What would you advise him?

GERGEN: I have been in favor a long time -- for a long time of sending more troops in. But, you know, it's very late now, and I think the hour has probably passed.

But the only way you can do it now is to accompany it by some very tough steps on the economic side and on the political side and the Maliki government. And with the assurances of the military that they're going to get more troops, that this is not going to break the back of the Army.

I don't think you can go forward in any other way. And to do that, just to put more troops in, to put more troops in is folly. It has to be accompanied by reforms on the part of the Iraqi government. And frankly, they ought to be -- we ought to be very time-limited.

We can't sit here just for month after month after month leaving our troops there as sitting duck there. You know, the casualty numbers this month in Iraq are going to be one of the highest of this year. And there's a real -- the mess is deepening in Iraq.

We've taken our attention off it a little bit in the last few days here in America with the death of President Ford and other events. But in Iraq, it's a deeper mess now than it was three weeks ago.

MALVEAUX: David Gergen, adviser to four presidents, including the late Gerald Ford."

End of transcript.

"All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."

A lot of good men did nothing in the run up to the  current Iraq war. The comparison of G.W. Bush to Hitler is old and tired but yet it still seems appropriate. How are G. Ford, C. Powell, J. Carter, B. Clinton et al all that different from the 'Good Germans' who said nothing against that monster?

David Gergen should be ashamed. How can he advocate sending more soldiers into that chaotic hell-hole? Would he send his son/daughter/nephew/niece into that endless loop of a nightmare?

These soft bastards sit there on the television and advocate policies that end up ripping peoples lives apart; killing children; causing untold and unimaginable anguish; creating generations of American-haters; and ruining our ability to gently influence the world around us.

Please read the recent Daily Kos article on Impeachment and the Moral High Ground. Get mad! Keep the fire in your guts! We have sinned gravely as a nation. We must make amends to the world and to our karma.

Dubya and his group of lying killers must be impeached. There is no other way to right the injustices and mayhem we have imposed on the world around us.