| Powell: “I think the GOP is having an identity problem”: Colin Powell yesterday appeared on “Meet the Press” to defend Chuck Hagel nomination’s to be defense secretary. But he did more than defend Hagel; he used his appearance to issue a scathing indictment of much of the Republican Party. “I think the Republican Party right now is having an identity problem, and I'm still a Republican… But in recent years, there's been a significant shift to the right, and we have seen what that shift has produced: two losing presidential campaigns.” More Powell: “Everybody wants to talk about, ‘Who's going to be the candidate?’ You've got to think first about what's the party actually going to represent? If it's just going to represent the far right wing of the political spectrum, I think the party is in difficulty. I'm a moderate, but I'm still a Republican. That's how I was raised. And until I voted for Mr. Obama twice, I had voted for seven straight Republican presidents.” Conservatives would argue that moderates like Powell have been the problem, because they have abandoned the party’s conservative principles. Conservatives would also argue that Colin Powell attacking the GOP is not “new”(s); he’s been doing it for some time. But the fact is, conservatives shouldn’t fully bury their head in the sand on Powell and take comfort that he’s never been a reliable supporter of the party. Sure, he lives in the Acela Corridor, and Republicans in the DC-NY nexus are more moderate than the rank-and-file of the party. But realize: Powell has cache with “center” of American politics, and there seems to be a growing number of moderate Republicans like Powell, Huntsman, Hagel, Scowcroft, Bloomberg who all say some form of the same thing about the GOP -- it doesn’t represent the mainstream. That’s not healthy for the GOP if it hopes to win a presidential election anytime soon. |
