Woodward: 'Ford Pardoned Nixon out of Friendship'

BREAKING....NEWS!!!

By BOB WOODWARD
Washington Post Staff Writer

Filed 12.29.06

Months before Richard M. Nixon set a relatively unknown Michigan congressman named Gerald R. Ford on the path to the White House, Nixon turned to Ford, who called himself the embattled president's "only real friend," to get him out of trouble.

During one of the darkest days of the Watergate scandal, Nixon secretly confided in Ford, at the time the House minority leader. He begged for help. He complained about fair-weather friends and swore at perceived rivals in his own party. "Tell the guys, goddamn it, to get off their ass and start fighting back," Nixon pleaded with Ford in one call recorded by the president's secret taping system.

(Click & Read on courtsey of The Washington Post)

Photo Captions & Credits: "Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, shown in October 1973, were friends as much as political allies" via United Press International