4.2.12 WC: 191694
Dinner with President and Mrs. Ford
Several years before Gerald Ford died, he and his wife invited me to deliver a lecture in Palm Springs where they were living. They invited my son and me to join them for dinner before the lecture. We schmoozed about our common experiences at Yale Law School, our different party affiliations, and our mutual love for football and other sports. Then he asked me a question: “What do you think of Justice John Paul Stevens?” I responded that I thought he was one of the greatest justices in modern history, that he brought real common sense to the job of judging, that he was non-ideological and that he was a really nice man. He deemed and said, “appointing him was the second most important decision of my presidency.” I asked him what the first most important decision was. He said, “The one that cost me reelection—the pardon of President Nixon.”
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