Books in Brief: Palace Politics: An Inside Account of the Ford Years

Palace Politics: An Inside Account of the Ford Years, by Robert T. Hartmann (McGraw-Hill, 451 pp., $15.95). This book is disappointing for a variety of reasons, not the least being the numbing repetition of the central theme. Hartmann’s obsession with the degree to which the Nixon staff managed the Oval Office before and after the accession of Gerald Ford to the Presidency soon wears on one’s nerves. So does his monotonous use of the words “Praetorian Guard,” “Praetorians,” and “White House Praetorians.” Which is not to suggest that the author’s point is invalid. It is arguable that Mr. Ford failed to win the 1976 election largely because he had never fully emerged from the shadow of the Nixon Administration. Yet the blame for this must ultimately be Ford’s, and though Hartmann ruefully concludes as much, he spends the bulk of the book flailing the Nixon holdovers for sabotage. The flavor of sour grapes becomes more evident as the author, who was Chief of Staff for Congressman and Vice President Ford, details the successive elevations of Haig, Rumsfeld, and Cheney to the command status that might have otherwise accrued to him. Hartmann chides those advisors who tried to toughen the President’s image, yet finally concludes that it may have been Ford’s reluctance to seize the leadership initiative that delivered the Republic to Jimmy Carter. Considering that sobering conclusion, one wonders if there were too many Praetorians inside the palace, or too few.