General Powell, The Old Soldier

By: Mr. Curmudgeon
mrcurmudgeon@inthepublicsquare.com

Several days ago, Rush Limbaugh stunned the mainstream media with the following announcement:

I quit! I resign as the titular head of the Republican Party! There, frankly, is someone far more qualified and capable and more in tune with today’s Republican Party than I…and that would be Gen. Colin Powell. So, I now pass the baton to Gen. Powell as the titular head of the Republican Party. From this day forward, it will be up to Gen. Powell to instruct the party on things it needs to do to win elections in 2010…look to his wise council, his leadership and his words of encouragement for the Republican Party.

Limbaugh, of course, was being facetious. Michael Steele is the Chairman of the Republican Party and, like Gen. Powell, is just as ineffective an advocate for his party. In fact, many prominent Republicans can easily be defined as belonging to the Alen Specter wing of the Republican Party. They relish the thought of “reaching across the aisle” in co-operation with their Democratic collogues but haven’t the Pennsylvania Senator's waning intellectual honesty to join the political party they will not oppose.

Therefore, they stay Republicans to oppose those who would, well, oppose. Limbaugh's choice of Gen. Powell is perfect in this regard; who better to lead a political rearguard action than a Vietnam-era political general ready to guide his party to the evacuation helicopters atop the embassy roof?

Former Vice President Dick Cheney gave a more direct criticism of Gen. Powell during an appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation:

I think my take on it was Colin had already left the party. I didn’t know he was still a Republican.

Of Gen. Powell’s endorsement of Barrack Obama for president, Cheney said:

I assumed that that is some indication of his loyalty and his interest.

Appearing on a subsequent broadcast of Face the Nation, Gen. Powell responded to Limbaugh and Cheney:

Rush Limbaugh will not get his wish and Mr. Cheney is ill-informed. I’m still a Republican.

He [Rush] shouldn’t have a veto over what someone thinks

The war of words is a clear indication of the major problem facing the Republican Party: like Shakespeare’s Hamlet, it cannot make up its mind. Or, as Abraham Lincoln said, “a house divided against itself cannot stand.”

Limbaugh may have resigned his media imposed title as “head of the Republican Party,” but the influential radio talk show host could have, and should have, resigned from the Republican Party itself.  How long will Rush and other conservatives remain loyal to a party that believes the best course is to serve as an amen corner for Democrats?

“The Republican Party has to take a hard look at itself and ask, ‘What kind of party are we?’” said Powell. He is right. And it shouldn’t take much soul searching for most thinking Republicans to realize that their exhausted party, like some old soldiers, should just fade away.

--Mr. Curmudgeon