We’re now remembering Gerald R. Ford. He was an un-elected president, the
post-Watergate prez, the caretaker exec who pardoned Richard M. Nixon.

It’s been noted that Ford was “the last surviving member of the Warren
Commission,” the group that investigated President Kennedy’s assassination
and concluded Oswald acted alone.

But Ford was also the obstructionist President, the chief executive who in
his scant tenure wielded his veto pen 66 times to stem federal spending.
Congress sustained 54 of the vetoes. To my mind this compares favorably with
the record of later chief executives. I’m told that our current President
has vetoed exactly one bill so far.

Ford not only blocked, he tackled — the problem of heavily regulated
industries.

Roderick Hills, who worked with Ford, recalls that the President “met
instant and massive opposition from all three” of the industries that he put
at the top of the list. The trucking, railroad and aviation industries.
While it was President Carter’s support that eventually made airline
deregulation a legislative fact, Hills stresses that “no one involved during
that period doubts the fact that it was the initiative of President Ford
that made such legislation possible.” Ford also went after AT&T’s monopoly
on telephone service.

Whenever I hear about Amtrak and how Congress keeps throwing billions at
this albatross, I realize Ford’s efforts were not completely successful. But
I believe we can thank him for helping bring about two-cent-a-minute phone
calls and $250 round trip air fares.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

Our liberties have not been safe in Washington for quite some time. Perhaps
it shouldn’t surprise us that neither are our children.

By dollars and body counts, the congressional page program doesn’t tally up
as the most critical issue facing our nation. But the injury of the
Congressman Mark Foley scandal has had insult heaped on top with the recent
House Ethics report.

This august body penalized no one in Congress for looking the other way. And
so Congress continues to set the worst possible example.

It is not the repugnant behavior of Foley that is most frightening. What
horrifies most is the reaction of virtually everyone to play politics with
the matter at the expense of the kids entrusted to them.

Worse still, this was indeed a bipartisan ethics report. The ranking
Democrat on the committee, Howard Berman protested urgently: “This is not
the jerry-rigged result of a series of compromises.”

Oh, no. Of course not. How could anyone even suggest such a thing?

After the 1983 page scandal, Congress established a Page Board comprised of
three lawmakers, the House clerk and the sergeant-at-arms. Problem is, the
just-released report found, the board didn’t regularly meet. And was kept in
the dark.

Now new Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she’ll reform the program. First, she’s
going to require regular meetings of the board. Yes, the board should meet!
Brilliant! That’s precisely the thing to do! And, if I may be so bold to
suggest: at the meeting, they should speak to each other.

Still, parents beware.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.