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If you're watching FOXNews, you know you're going to run into Karl "I belong in front of a War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague" Rove. Naturally, a man who is synonymous with the nasty, divisive partisan politics that the voters overwhelmingly rejected in 2008 is the go-to guy for answers on the direction of the Republican Party.

Host Chris Wallace asks Rove, who remains strangely sure of his vision of the Republican Party despite the fact that fewer people identify themselves as Republicans now than ever before, whether the Republican Party has room in it for someone like former Secretary of State Colin Powell who was guilty of being quoted by the National Journal as saying that Americans are looking for something that current GOP appears to not understand.

WALLACE: Finally, Colin Powell is answering his Republican critics today. Powell said -- and we’re going to put it up on the screen -- this earlier this month. “Americans do want to pay taxes for services. Americans are looking for more government in their life, not less.”

Rove, to his credit (and it kills me to write that), says that the market should decide what works for the Republican Party. Powell should find a candidate he supports and see which candidate resonates with the party. Asked if he, like Dick Cheney, chose the Rush Limbaugh version over the Colin Powell version, good ol' Turdblossom predictably chooses the Fat Bastard of the GOP:

WALLACE: Dick Cheney said if it’s a battle between or a choice between Rush Limbaugh and Colin Powell, he sides with Limbaugh. You?

ROVE: I -- yes, if I had to pick between the two. But you know what? That’s -- neither one of those are candidates. Neither one of those are going to be people who are offering themselves for office.

It seems to me that Rove's ideas have already lost in the marketplace of ideas in the GOP (such as it is). Mr. "Permanent Republican Majority" not only lost big in the election, but is losing membership more and more as they continue to try to keep it business as usual. What's more telling to me is the part of the National Journal article on Powell that Wallace didn't bring up and that shows just that Rove and his brethren just don't get it:

Powell described the 2008 GOP candidate, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, as "a beloved friend" but said he told him last summer that the party had developed a reputation for being mean-spirited and driven more by social conservatism than the economic problems that Americans faced.

Powell also criticized other GOP leaders, for bowing too much to the right.

He blasted radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, saying he does not believe that Limbaugh or conservative icon Ann Coulter serve the party well. He said the party lacks a "positive" spokesperson. "I think what Rush does as an entertainer diminishes the party and intrudes or inserts into our public life a kind of nastiness that we would be better to do without," Powell said.

Hmm....where did that negative mean-spiritedness come from, Karl? At least I'm confident that Powell won't bow down to the altar of Rushbo, begging forgiveness.

Transcripts (courtesy of CQ Politics) below the fold

WALLACE: Finally, Colin Powell is answering his Republican critics today. Powell said -- and we’re going to put it up on the screen -- this earlier this month. “Americans do want to pay taxes for services. Americans are looking for more government in their life, not less.”

Not just that statement, but his body of work, his endorsement of Obama -- do you think that Colin Powell is a Republican? And is there room in the Republican Party for Powell?

ROVE: Sure. And look, anybody who says they’re a Republican is a Republican. There is no membership committee that designates whether you are or not. If you say you’re Republican, you’re Republican.

Look, Colin Powell has a right to advocate this view. I defend his right to do that. I don’t agree with it, but I defend his right to do so. I would hope that he would back up that vision by finding candidates who represent his vision of the future of the Republican Party and actively working for them. That’s what it ought to be about.

I don’t like this thing where people -- and Powell is one them -- who said, “Rush Limbaugh, shut up.” I mean, that’s -- we believe, as Republicans in the marketplace of ideas, let that marketplace decide. Let everybody with a competing vision find the kind of candidates they want to support and work hard for them.

I want Colin Powell to go out there and lay out his vision, and then I want him to back it up by finding people who share it and working like heck to get them -- and that’s how you win the party -- the party’s intraparty battle of ideas.

WALLACE: Dick Cheney said if it’s a battle between or a choice between Rush Limbaugh and Colin Powell, he sides with Limbaugh. You?

ROVE: I -- yes, if I had to pick between the two. But you know what? That’s -- neither one of those are candidates. Neither one of those are going to be people who are offering themselves for office.

Again, that’s -- this is a false debate that Washington loves. The real debate takes place out there in the real world by people getting out there and encouraging and helping the kind of candidates who represent their vision for their party, Republican or Democrat.

This happens every election after the party loses. It’s a healthy thing. I say go to it. Find the people that you think represent your vision, outline it, and work like heck for them, and the country and the party will be better off for it.