There was a better time and there can be again.
Orlando Sentinel[/b]
There is a statue of Gerald Ford, the 38th president of the United States and a Republican, in the Capitol Rotunda. This quotation is on its base:
“God has been good to America, especially during difficult times. At the time of the Civil War, he gave us Abraham Lincoln. And at the time of Watergate, he gave us Gerald Ford — the right man at the right time who was able to put our nation back together again.”
It is signed by former Speaker of the House “Tip” O’Neill, a Democrat.
Most of the time, these two men held different views on policy and politics, but they were genuine friends and treated each other with respect. Their relationship set the tone for the rest of us in the administration.
The president was criticized by his own party for putting quality public policy ahead of politics. The U.S. had suffered through the Arab oil embargo, so in late 1975 we sent the Congress a proposed comprehensive energy bill. It contained some very tough provisions to promote conservation and increased energy production.
The president asked me to visit with selected congressional leaders to encourage support for the proposal. After a long day on the Hill, I stopped at the White House and reported, “Mr. President we have managed to p--- off both the Republicans and the Democrats.” At that he smiled and said, “That means we have it exactly right.”
John Dingell of Michigan, another Democrat, was the toughest man in the House and my Oversight Committee chairman. At a hearing in late 1975, he worked me over with criticism more intense than usual. He announced that his investigators had discovered improper activity in one of our field offices. Then he went on to describe the violations in painful detail and he asked for my response.
The entire matter was a surprise to me, so I was tempted to explain my lack of knowledge and tell him I would look into the matter and get back to him. But after a thoughtful pause I said, “Mr. Chairman, it looks as though we really screwed up.”
Dingell did not expect that answer and was disappointed with my surrender. There was a long pause as he glared at me and asked, “Are you going to sit there and wrap yourself in the truth?”
There was a longer pause, he realized what he said and started to laugh and the rest of us joined him. That night we started a long and special friendship.
During the rest of the Ford term, we worked together to build a bipartisan energy policy.
There was occasional bitterness between Ford and the Congress, the worst coming after Ford pardoned Richard Nixon. The fiercest attacks came from Sen. Ted Kennedy, another Democrat, but even that was reversed. In May 2001, Ford was honored by the John F. Kennedy Library with their Profile in Courage award. Speaking at the event, Ted Kennedy said, “I was one of those who spoke out against his action then. But time has a way of clarifying past events, and now we see that President Ford was right.”
The foundation for that decent and civilized period was mutual respect and trust, even when there was significant disagreement on policy or politics.
There was a better time and there can be again.
Frank Zarb was the U.S. “energy czar” under President Gerald Ford from 1974 to 1977 and the chairman and CEO of the Nasdaq stock exchange from 1997 to 2001. He lives in Orlando.
