It hurt because the guiding hands (as I note in this weekend's column) given to Bush the Younger by the GOP establishment were all Ford guys (Cheney, Rumsfeld) or their proteges (Scowcroft's Powell and Rice).

I have often joked in the brief about Bush's team being a bunch of retreads from the Ford Administration (their formative period, no doubt) and often gotten confused giggles from the audience. But I think after Ford's funeral, the connections became clear to most people.