If Ford had not pardoned Nixon, what would have happened to Nixon?

Just wondering...

The Senate had the votes to convict.

Likely he would have faced trials for all kinds of crimes.

he would not have been impeached, what was coming down the pike was prosecution by the DOJ for a slew of violations of law

But... essentially neither the House or the Senate had to do a thing... since HE RESIGNED

And this is a fine point that the pubies like to use, not that they understand why either

he had resigned, he couldn't be impeached he wasn't in office any longer.

to be impeached, indicted, convicted, and likely to appeal the conviction. That is the legal side.

On a personal side, the stress of being caught and held responsible for his crimes was taking a significant toll on Nixon's mental and physical health. He had told associates that he went to bed, hoping not to wake up.

its going to be a dark day in his life and I don't think he can handle it, just saying

An Existential Crisis Loomed Large To Be Sure!! :sarcasm:

At least that's the logical frame invoked when one talks of healing the "great national wound."

pursued charges. I'm not aware that any charges were actually being drafted. So what would have happened w/o a pardon? IMO, nothing.

Public opinion itself would have demanded a trial, or at least indictment, Nixon was that hated, after all. Ford fell on his sword for a criminal, basically, something that shouldn't have occurred.

and it's true that Ford believed that people would get over it in six months or so. Seems some are still not over it 33 years later. In fact, Ford not only consulted his advisors, constitutional attorneys and others in his party...he also consulted a man named Duncan Littlefair. Littlefair was lead preacher at a church called Fountain Street in Grand Rapids. Look him up.

big freakin' deal, also, I don't see how consulting a preacher has anything to do with a legal matter like this.

happening must be viewed as slightly less than the chances of Nixon being re-elected in 2008.

to this whole discussion. But suit yourself, you know best.

and praised Ford for his "Christian Charity" for pardoning Nixon. So what? He was still wrong.

or Catholic persuasion in this very conservative town. His church was the first in GR to provide support of any kind to all the Nam vets, poor families and was regularly involved in civil rights activities. Duncan Littlefair was not only a preacher, he exhorted both his flock and GR to be more responsive to the policies in Washington, to walk the talk. His sermons were sent all over the US even as his little town pilloried him for his devotion to social justice. The status quo hated him but they respected him.

Duncan was no lover of Richard Nixon and he was a believer in peace. His counsel to Gerald Ford was to abandon Nixon in favor of ending the war in Nam' with or without funds from Congress, ending the recession and improving the lot of Americans.

What is phenomenal is that Gerald Ford so much as consulted Duncan, let alone subscribed to the belief that Nixon out of office and out of Washington was a better way to move forward than to have Nixon front and center at a time of deep, deep, difficulty in the US.

That was the choice Gerald Ford had then, move ahead or drag Nixon along like a boulder on a chain. Today the choice may appear different, but that's what it was at the time.

I hate appeals to authority, a logically fallacious way to try to argue. Also, the nation COULD multi-task at the time, so I don't buy the whole "We had to move on" bullshit.

The nation may have been able to multi-task but the executive branch is really only about one guy. Clinton appeared to suffer when he was under the impeachment gun, and that's been written about extensively. So it shouldn't be a surprise any other prez would experience something similar. Especially one who hadn't sought the office in the first place.

Nixon resigned, he couldn't have been impeached, but prosecution was definitely been in the realm of possibility. This wouldn't have hindered Ford in supporting Massacres and Dictators, so pretty much everything else would have happened as it did with the pardon. The only difference is some of Fords actions would have ended up on page 4-C instead of A-1.

was mercy. The what if's and if only's are all gone now. No matter how often the debate about the pardon is reborn, it exists as history. As dusty and dry as the bones of Lincoln. Someone, somewhere will endorse mercy for George Bush one day and the structure of the debate will be the same then as now.

It never changes.

Mercy is like sand in the mouths of those who can't agree or won't agree on who should have it, when or in what manner. Yet, it's still given and no matter how much anyone wants to withold it, someone, somewhere will pass it over.

Seriously, what type of tangent are you on now? Its not like Nixon was an ailing 99 year old in the '70s who couldn't even remember his mother's name. He was a calculating POS who had no qualms in squashing his opponents by ANY means necessary. Stop with this revisionist crap, and stop making excuses, it really demeans you.

what I observed and knew from my sources in GR (including Littlefair) as the sidebar I spoke of in an earlier post. You'll have to look for an argument from someone else, I don't have one.

they wanted him out, he was out. I don't think it would have been pursued further.

by the end of his life, he was getting a bit of respect that he no way deserved

he might even have faced criminal charges

it would have had a bigger effect on the subsequent repukes who have increasingly behaved as though tey are above the law. It would have discouraged the 1982 October Surprise treason, the "hit-the-jackpot" savings and loan crooks under Reagan, the BCCI and Iran-Contra crooks, and the laundry list of criminal repukes under george the lesser.

But Nixon kept coming back to spew his venom in the media and flit around the rafters.
Ford told the confirmation hearing when asked if he would pardon Nixon "No. I don't think the American people would stand for that."
Looks like he was smarter (or better advised) than we thought.
I do think Nixon was starting to go clean over the edge on the last day though, I remember watching his resignation speech on TV, just before he boarded the escape-helicopter and gave that iconic farewell double gesture...he went non-sequitor and said how his mother was "a saint". I remember thinking "wow, the president is'nt just a thug and a crook, he's mentally disturbed." It wasn't a re-assuring feeling.

Thanks to Michael Bolton ;-)

thing I think a tax evation count was all they had on him personally. All the rest was done in his name by others. As I remember it all we really wanted was for him to get out of the WH and end his presidency. Once he was out we went on with the business of living. I agree with John Dean when he tells us that *ss and company are much worse than Nixon ever was.

Nixon bleeds people. He draws every drop of blood and then drops them from a cliff. He'll blame any person he can put his foot on.
-Martha Mitchell

Ford stated that Nixon never once thanked him or even mentioned the pardon to him.