Pioneering comedy writer Anne Beatts's take on a president who was funny without trying

“New York heads toward collapse helped im­measurably by a president who apparently feels it is not only good politics but good policy to let the city go down.”

“It will go on, getting worse and worse until whatever losses leaving New York will entail begin to pale by comparison to the kind of life staying here will require you to live.”

“In a rational world there could indeed be a recovery, but it is plain that the country is not under rational control. Its leaders are unable to focus on reality and drift along on illusions.”

While Mr. Ford felt he was finally putting Watergate matters to rest, I am back to seeing my President clear — this time as a horse’s ass.

In a 1974 Voice essay, Philip Roth lamented the absurdity of Richard Nixon’s pardon