Powell Defends GOP Credentials
Tue, 05/26/2009 - 9:07am | 
TheRLC
FoxNews.com
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell took on Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh Sunday, shooting down their accusations that he had abandoned the Republican Party while continuing to dish out advice to the GOP.
Powell, speaking on CBS' "Face the Nation," touted his Republican credentials and urged his party to be more moderate and inclusive. He was answering back after Limbaugh called on him to join the Democrats and Cheney said he thought Powell had already left the GOP.
"Rush will not get his wish and Mr. Cheney was misinformed. I am still a Republican," Powell said, noting that he "voted solidly for Republican candidates" for president for 20 years, spent 10 years of his life serving in Republican administrations and spoke at two GOP conventions.
"You know, neither (Cheney) nor Rush Limbaugh are members of the membership committee of the Republican Party. I get to make my decision on that," Powell said. "And so I will continue to work in a way that I think is helpful to the country and helpful to the party."
He said the reason he endorsed Barack Obama for president last fall -- a decision that prompted a wave of conservative discontent with Powell -- was he believed Obama was "best-qualified" to lead.
And Powell dismissed Limbaugh's claim that the only reason Powell, who is black, backed Obama was because of his race.
"I don't want to exchange insults with him. But I thought it was unfortunate," Powell said. "I laid out a very specific set of reasons as to why I was voting for Barack Obama. Mr. Limbaugh saw fit to dismiss all those reasons and put it into a racial context."
Powell, meanwhile, encouraged more criticism within the GOP of Limbaugh -- he said Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele had to "lay prostrate on the floor apologizing" for his criticism of Limbaugh, but that the talk show host "shouldn't have a veto over what someone thinks."
And he urged the party to look beyond the most conservative elements of its base.
"I believe we need a strong Republican Party that is not just anchored in the base but has built on the base to include more individuals," Powell said. "If we don't reach out more, the party is going to be sitting on a very, very narrow base. You can only do two things with a base. You can sit on it and watch the world go by, or you can build on the base."
This kind of advice has riled some conservatives, who warn that too much moderation will cause the Republican Party to merely mimic the Democrats. It stirred figures like Limbaugh and the former vice president to criticize Powell as disloyal.
"I think my take on it was Colin had already left the party. I didn't know he was still a Republican," Cheney said on "Face the Nation" two weeks ago. He said Limbaugh better stands for GOP values than Powell.
But Powell argued his case Sunday, warning that if the party moves too far right, Democrats and independents will take over the center and the right-of-center.
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The Republican party must
The Republican party must survey what we actually think.
In the last couple months, I have been disheartened to receive three purported surveys with questions that appeared to have been formulated by the Grand Inquisitor. To paraphrase, they asked things like "Do you support Obama's insanely ruinous spending and efforts to destroy America by making us a socialist country?" These surveys were intended only to raise ire and fear. They clearly had no interest in finding out what Republicans actually think. Just the reverse. They were designed to tell us what to think.
Michael Steele and our other hapless leaders don't know which way to turn because they don't have any idea what we think. They should send out a legitimate survey and find out.
They might discover that most of think Mr. Limbaugh is a boisterous entertainer who speaks for a a very small, extremist minority in the party. Sarah Palin is not taken seriously. And if we were to choose between following either of them or Colin Powell, Mr.Powell would win hands down.
Colin Powell is right on.
Colin Powell is right on. We need to stop moving to the beat of the Christian right on social issues (abortion and gay rights) and focus on what the Republican Party is supposed to be about: the political issues of small government and fiscal conservatism. Until we do so, our party will continue to lose members and, more importantly, votes. I vote for Powell, Ridge, and Crist; not Cheney, Limbaugh, and Gingrich. Moderate Republicans are our future. If not, we don't have one.
You summed it up succinctly
You summed it up succinctly and accurately. What bothers me is that, despite polls that say the far right is clearly a minority in the country, and Americans clearly voted with their feet away from their philosophy in the last two elections, within the Republican party we moderates seem to constantly remain a 'silent majority.' Meanwhile, the ultra-conservatives continue to set the agenda and and get all the attention.
The RLC seems to be a last refuge for a few of us who want to remain Republicans and who want to speak out against the hijackers, but how long can we last at this level? We're sort of a 'base' of our own, and as General Powell says, you can stand on your base and watch the world go by, or you can build on it. I wonder if the RLC has ever considered a poll to (1) See how many of us there are in the general population (2)'Advertise' the RLC's principles and goals and sample how many of the populace agree with them. Might help to build our 'base.'
J. Chronic
CAPT USN (Ret)