Former President Gerald R. Ford's body had not even assumed room temperature when Bob Woodward rushed into print his interview in which Ford second-guessed President Bush's intervention in Iraq.

Woodward, of course, is famous for these interviews with the dead and the near-dead. He's famous for interviews with people who tell him things that can only be published when they leave this earthly plane. It has become his specialty as a journalist.

Let's assume for the moment Ford actually told Woodward the war in Iraq was "a big mistake" – something he would never have done as president.

May I ask a few key questions?

(Column continues below)

How many people have been soliciting Ford's public-policy advice for the last 30 years?

What were Ford's major accomplishments as a non-elected president that would give his advice gravitas?

Not to put too fine a point on it, but, when was Ford ever right about anything?

"[Donald] Rumsfeld and [Dick] Cheney and the president made a big mistake in justifying going into the war in Iraq," Ford was quoted posthumously by Woodward. "They put the emphasis on weapons of mass destruction. And now, I've never publicly said I thought they made a mistake, but I felt very strongly it was an error in how they should justify what they were going to do."

He allegedly continued: "I don't think, if I had been president, on the basis of the facts as I saw them publicly, I don't think I would have ordered the Iraq war. I would have maximized our effort through sanctions, through restrictions, whatever, to find another answer."

Ford is said to have made the comments on the condition that they would not be published until after this death. Presumably, he sought out Woodward because that's his beat – talking to people on their deathbeds about ideas and thoughts they are reluctant to defend while alive.

That fact – that Ford did not apparently have the willingness to say these things while he could be questioned, while his ideas could be debated, explored and dissected – should tell us much about the man and the worthiness of his analysis.

I don't wish to speak ill of the dead, but, by granting this interview with Woodward, Ford has placed himself in a position of inviting critical analysis of his ideas. And here's the truth about Ford: He was always a politician who craved acceptance by the establishment. For me, Ford's comments strengthen my own conviction that, despite the many mistakes made in the execution of the war in Iraq, it was fundamentally and morally the right choice.

When I think about Ford, these are a few of memories that come to mind:

• His repeated insistence to a shocked New York Times reporter that Eastern Europe was not under domination by the Soviet Union. It is hard to recall or imagine a presidential statement more out of touch with reality, one that illustrated a willingness to accommodate and appease evil in the world for the sake of "stability."

• His pompous attempt to insinuate himself as a vice presidential candidate and, worse, a kind of "co-president," with Ronald Reagan during the 1980 Republican National Convention.

• His role on the Warren Commission, which seemed to leave open more questions about President John. F. Kennedy's assassination than it answered.

• His decision – probably a quid pro quo for gaining the presidency in the first place – to pardon Richard Nixon for his Watergate crimes.

• His sloppy exit from Vietnam – a retreat that ultimately resulted in the slaughter of millions in Southeast Asia.

• His signing of the Helsinki Accords, a desperate act of capitulation to Soviet Union aggression.

• His appointment of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, who has nothing but contempt for the U.S. Constitution.

• His presiding over unprecedented inflation and recession at home – an economy so weak, it set the stage for the election of one of the worst presidents in American history, Jimmy Carter.

We tend to get nostalgic about politicians at the time of their death. But, again, Ford, by virtue of his comments designed to be reported at his death, has, if we are to take Bob Woodward at this word, invited this analysis.

---

Related special offer:

"Rumsfeld's War"