The party of Colin Powell

Boston Globe ^ | May 13, 2009 | Jeff Jacoby

[MartinaMisc]

A PROMINENT supporter of Barack Obama told a Washington audience last week that "the Republican Party is in deep trouble" and "getting smaller and smaller" because its views are not in sync with those of mainstream Americans. Republicans would do better without the "nastiness" of Rush Limbaugh or the "very polarizing" Sarah Palin, the speaker said, and they should realize that their philosophy of lower taxes and limited government has put them out of step with their fellow citizens.

"Americans do want to pay taxes for services," he told his audience. "Americans are looking for more government in their life, not less."

There is nothing particularly unusual about Democrats deprecating conservatism or endorsing big government, but these comments didn't come from a Democrat. The speaker was Colin Powell, who claims to be a Republican.

There are times when party loyalty asks too much, JFK once said, but for Powell there rarely seems to be a time when it doesn't. Though he owes every lofty position he has held - national security adviser, four-star general, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, secretary of state - to GOP presidents, Republicans perpetually appear to rub him the wrong way: especially the conservatives who constitute the party's base.

This is not the first time Powell has urged the GOP to become more liberal. "There is nothing wrong with having socially conservative views," he said in December, but Republicans must "begin appealing to Hispanics, to blacks, to Asians . . . and not just try to influence them by Republican principles and dogma." He complained that Republicans "had moved further to the right" - something he also complained about when he went on "Meet the Press" to endorse the presidential candidacy of the most liberal member of the Senate.

[a fool in paradise]

The Boston Glob? Are they still publishing that rag?

[NoLibZone]

[iopscusa]

IMO, this Dimwit-ocrat Powell may or may not have been honorable in service to this country during Vietnam. He has been nothing but treasonous afterward. He has been instrumental in botching both Gulf Wars and has been nothing but a selfcentered tools. I would be interested in hearinfg from anyone about CP’s overall military record.