Sunday, May 24, 2009
Powell on his Republicanism, and the aggressive response to 9/11
Colin Powell's segment on this morning's "Face the Nation" is worth watching in its entirety for at least two reasons. Notwithstanding criticism of him from the right, he remains, he says, a Republican. He is saying this at a time when Republicans are flat on their back, and there is no apparent advantage in loudly reaffirming his status. More importantly, watch through to the end and listen to what he has to say about the "enhanced interrogation" techniques used in the wake of 9/11. It will be interesting to see whether the media establishment emphasizes his arguments in their coverage.
12 Comments:
By 
smitty1e, at
Sun May 24, 08:24:00 PM:
Powell is a BHO surrogate. If the media needs to emphasize the GITMO comments to cover BHO's flank, they will. It's more likely to seem them emphasize the Republican squaks. Attempt to keep the right divided.
By 
, at
Sun May 24, 09:02:00 PM:
He is playing a cagey role, and it disgusts me. He clearly relates to Obama for racial reasons and this seeming retrenchment is straight from the Obama-Axelrod playbook. Don't try to provoke discussion by seeming to take the "middle ground, TH. (smiles)
By JPMcT, at
Sun May 24, 09:41:00 PM:
Powell is a neo-con progressive...exactly the mind set that is the recipe for Republican election losses.
He is also a massive hypocrite...espousing the Republican Party to run moderate candidates, and then turning his back on John McCain (THE Republican Moderate Candidate) in order to vote for the guy with the same number of melanocytes per cm2 in his skin as he had.
He is clearly not a Republican.
He prostitutes his vote to accomodate skin color...and the majority of Republicans KNOW that and have thrown it back in his face...THUS his shape shifting on the Sunday Talk Shows.
...AND...lets not forget who it was that left Saddham standing after the First Gulf War. If the guy had any balls he would have finished the whole deal then...and there would have been NO NEED for a Second Gulf War.
Don't expect the rest of us to get all blearly eyed about Colin Powell, Tigerhawk. He violates the first rule of military conduct...he leaves his friends in the lurch...and that's unforgivable.
By , at
Sun May 24, 10:01:00 PM:
What Powell showed is that he's black. Skill color trumped everything else.
He's a Republican my white ass.
He hung true to his race and cast his vote for and support to the most liberal Senator. Now he wants to try to horn in and negotiate some save for Obama in this Gitmo flap ... please. Cheney still trumps Powell ... one has to assume that the VP sees it all. Powell's already said he did not.
By RogerCfromSD, at
Sun May 24, 11:54:00 PM:
As JT said; or more to the point, a good Conservative never leaves his principles behind.
Powell may not claim to be a Conservative, be is not a good Republican.
He compromised his principles and party affiliation when he voted for Obama.
McCain would have sucked, but I don't think he would have ushered in this Socialist Era as Obama has.
By , at
Mon May 25, 12:11:00 AM:
Also, Powell (IMHO) was angling for a job in the BHO administration with his endorsement in October. BHO gave him the cold shoulder. Now, Powell wants to make up with the GOP. Powell stabbed the GOP in the back when it nominated McCain, the epitome of a moderate. Powell's registration may read GOP, but he isn't anyone the GOP should listen too.
By , at
Mon May 25, 12:13:00 AM:
Well, there is certainly a lot of hostility towards Sec. Powell here, I must say.
But isn't this a sound political perscription, for the Republicans to broaden their base? The question is, how broad will they have to be to get Colin Powell to vote for the Republican Presidential candidate in 2012, over Barack Obama?
My guess is, "pretty broad". And not the pretty broad from Alaska, either. :)
Perhaps a more subtle question to ponder is who put Colin Powell up to this appearance on "Face the Nation" today? Because it accomplishes a myriad of things for Barack Obama, yet seems to do very little for Republicans, methinks. Strange way to buck up your party there, Colin.
This is going to rip open the scab of the intra-administration debate from the first term of the Bush White House (changing the subject-how Axelrod-ian!) between Powell and Cheney, stack more wood around the funeral pyre of the "old" GOP (that's the Old Grand Old Party), and drive away the self - identified moderates from the GOP brand. A two-fer would be for Richard Armitage to show up sometime in the next week on cable and really lay into someone else in the Bush Administration. Axelrod really knows how to push them buttons!
To take full advantage of this, Nancy Pelosi has to keep her big mouth shut for 7-10 days about the CIA, while this festers in the cable news cycle. Possible?
And now that Colin Powell has stuck the knife into John McCain again, I will bet that McCain's next pronouncement will be his undying admiration for Powell.
In the Republican Party, we all wear "kick me!" signs.
-David
By , at
Mon May 25, 02:08:00 AM:
Powell claims to still be a Republican because it makes it easier for him to be invited on Left-wing media shows. The only Republicans the MSM likes are dead or living and bashing other Republicans.
By Gary Rosen, at
Mon May 25, 04:07:00 AM:
JPMcT nailed it. Powell abandoned the Republican party to vote for BO even though the Republican nominee was not Limbaugh, Glen Beck or Ron Paul, but John McCain. How can he come back now with all this pious rot about the party needing to "broaden its base"? If McCain wasn't "moderate" enough for him, who would be? Olympia Snowe? Joe Lieberman? Dennis Kucinich?
By , at
Mon May 25, 07:02:00 AM:
JpMct takes this one downtown. Every comment made landed within a CEP-5m - to which I can only add that I hold the man in utter contempt after staying mute during the Plame faux-trials.
It was his man, Armitage, who leaked the name and the connection to the CIA, and that man wouldn't take a leak unless Powell authorized it.
Did Powell step forward to still the waters? No, not that I recall. Even if the media would have attempted to squash him out of the news cycle, there's no way they could have. Propaganda-whores at the old grey lady simply cannot Just. Say. No. to an incumbent Secretary of State, which Powell was at the time the Plame witchhunt was going on.
Consider that Powell's departure from State was much like most of his political moves; a quizzical "huh?", followed by a slight gallic shrug of the shoulders, then a ready recognition that it - and he - didn't matter much anyway. He might very well have been shown the door by Dubya; and from what I've seen of Bush 43's manner these past nine years, doing it quietly without besmirching Powell's name is something George would do.
I've sometimes wondered, just as a segue from the above, if Powell's endorsement of the chosen one wasn't payback for the above slight.
No matter my musings, my final word on Powell: he may very well be a republican, at least in the contemporary transmogrification of the word, much the same way that "liberal" is now used to stand for fascist; but he is certainly no Conservative.
JG
By The Conservative Wahoo, at
Mon May 25, 09:16:00 AM:
I've gotten into a little scrape with a fellow on this subject over at The Conservative Wahoo--here's the link http://conservativewahoo.blogspot.com/2009/05/general-powell-and-republican-party.html
By , at
Sat May 30, 12:10:00 AM:
Colin Powell is a Republican, if he says he is. We should be grateful that we have him. I am sure that he has been under tremendous pressure to switch parties. He has been loyal to Bush and has defended both Bush, Cheney, and the War in Iraq on occasion. What he says about the necessities right after 9/11 have the ring of common sense. Not something easy to find in the left wing media or the new administration.
I think we should cut him some slack, and be wary of the media playing the 'lets you and him fight' game, between Republicans.
That said he is no conservative.
And Rush was right to look at Powell's endorsement of Obama and question his judgment. To trust Obama you have to assume that he is lying most of the time.
