The passing of former President Gerald R. Ford just after Christmas made a slow news week interesting, as reporters reflected on the events of more than 30 years ago that created a constitutional crisis for the nation, and made Gerald Ford, as Tom Brokaw said in his eulogy, “a President by fate rather than by design.” If you read only about the Watergate era in history books or see old television clips, it’s hard to fathom the mood of that time in Washington. For others, it was a reminder of an intense period that called into question the rule of law and trust in government, every bit as threatening as today’s bullets and bombs.
