Write It When I'm Gone

Thomas DeFrank's private conversations with Gerald Ford reveal less of the bumbler of popular imagination and more of the shrewd politician who, after all, was at or near the center of things in Washington for 30 years. These interviews, kept sealed until the former president's death, paint a Ford who was not above holding grudges (against Carter and Reagan) and cashing in after leaving office by giving speeches and serving on corporate boards. He even took a cut from Franklin Mint coins depicting his swearing in. But mostly Ford emerges as an honest, diligent plodder. There is plenty of gossipy material, as when he says that Bill Clinton has a "sex sickness" and needs treatment, or wonders why no one in the Clinton Cabinet resigned during the Lewinsky scandal. Ford was astonished that they could continue to work for a president who had lied to them. In this era in which federal legislators distribute pictures of their genitals, that can be filed under Quaint.