Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Hamilton Jordan


Hamilton Jordan
1944-2008

Matt Towery:

"I understand that in the past few decades we have become such a polarized nation that it is impossible to extol the virtues of someone associated with a former Democratic president, particularly an active and often colorful former president such as Jimmy Carter, without immediately upsetting the most partisan of readers. Well, get over it. Hamilton Jordan taught a lot of lessons."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ham Jordan (thats "JERR-dun," y'all) was one of a kind.

In '77 I got a behind the scenes tour of the White House from Mrs. Jordan. It was fascinating. I was a starry-eyed high school Woodward-Bernstein wannabe who'd practically memorized "All the President's Men."

We walked into Jordan's office, which had been (I think) Ehrlichman's office in the audio-taping obsessed Nixon administration.

"Funny thing is," Ham said, "when we went into the closet and cabinets, there were all these bare wires just hanging out everywhere."

As we were on the way out, Mrs. Jordan introduced me to Carter's marketing wizard, Gerry Rafshoon. She pointed at me and said, "He's from Georgia, too."

Rafshoon beamed like a schoolboy and threw his arms open wide. "Aren't we all!" he grinned. "Aren't we all!"