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Understatement of the year. The GOP still has a huge problem with racism and doesn't seem too terribly concerned about remedying it any time soon. Powell takes their racist cheerleader in chief Rush Limbaugh to task for his statements about Judge Sonia Sotomayor being a reverse racist.

KING: We are about to have a Supreme Court nomination confirmation hearing, and it is clear now from all involved that we're going to have a spirited conversation about affirmative action. It is an issue that you have discussed many times over the course of your life.

Any advice for the senators in both parties as this goes forward? Let me ask you first if you know Judge Sotomayor?

POWELL: No, I do not.

KING: She's from the Bronx.

(CROSSTALK)

POWELL: She's from my neighborhood, yes. She seems like a very gifted and accomplished woman. She certainly has an open and liberal bent of mind, but that's not disqualifying. But she seems to have a judicial record that seems to be balanced and tries to follow the law.

And so I hope we do have a spirited set of hearings. And Supreme Court confirmation hearings tend to always meet that standard. And she ought to be asked about everything from both the left and the right. What we can't continue to have is to have somebody like a Judge Sotomayor who is announced, and based on one simple tricky but nonetheless case at the Supreme Court has now decided, have her called a racist, a reverse-racist, and she ought to withdraw her nomination because we're mad at her.

Fortunately the senators who will sit on this hearing in the Judiciary Committee after a few days of this kind of nonsense said, let's slow down, let's examine her qualifications the way we're supposed to at a confirmation hearing.

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The Republicans are like the gang that couldn't shoot straight. They've been attacking Colin Powell ever since he put a voice to some of his complaints about the GOP. Who is America siding with in this debate?

CNN's new poll says: Colin Powell.

As Colin Powell fires back against Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh in the latest skirmish in the battle over the future of the Republican Party, a new national poll indicates that Americans have a much more favorable opinion of Powell than Cheney or Limbaugh.
The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, released Monday, suggests that 70 percent have a favorable opinion of Powell, who was Secretary of State during President George W. Bush's first term, and who served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Persian Gulf War.

Only 30 percent of those polled have a favorable view of Limbaugh, the popular conservative radio talk show host, with 53 percent saying they hold an unfavorable opinion.

In poll numbers released Thursday, 37 percent say they have a favorable opinion of Dick Cheney, with 55 percent indicating they hold an unfavorable view of the former vice president.

I haven't seen a poll including Karl Rove, but outside of his FOX audience, his numbers would be in the basement and he too hates Colin Powell:

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.

I'm no fan of Colin, the role he played to persuade American that we should attack Iraq will never be forgotten, but it's interesting to see the GOP rip themselves apart.

Here's Colin Powell on Face the Nation:

"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 it. I believe we should build on it." - Colin Powell today on "Face The Nation," responding to Dick Cheney's comment that he would choose Rush Limbaugh over Colin Powell.

At this point, only the most extreme right wingers will get any kind of support from their base so I'd like to thank them. Keep up the good work!

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On Meet the Press Newt Gingrich says he's not going to decide on whether he wants to grace us with a Presidential run until 2011.

GREGORY: Let me ask you about the future of the Republican Party and the ongoing debate about who's the leader of the party. Vice President Cheney said when it came to Colin Powell he didn't even consider him a Republican any longer. Well, Secretary Powell--General Powell responded this week. He said this: "Rush Limbaugh says," effectively to me, "`Get out of the Republican Party.' Dick Cheney says, `He's already out.' I may be out of their version of the Republican Party, but there's another version of the Republican Party waiting to emerge once again." Do you think Colin Powell is part of that Republican Party?

GINGRICH: Absolutely.

GREGORY: You think Dick Cheney was wrong?

REP. GINGRICH: Yeah. I, I don't want to pick a fight with Dick Cheney, but I think, I think the fact is the Republican Party has to be a broad party that appeals across the country and that does so--I mean, we have the governor of Vermont, we have the governor of Rhode Island. These, these are not states that are traditional Southern, right wing states. The--to be a national party you have to have a big enough tent that you inevitably have fights inside the tent. Ronald Reagan understood that. And Reagan always used to say--and as you know, my wife Callista and I did--recently did a movie on Reagan. And, and, and Reagan always used to say, "My fellow Republicans and those independents and Democrats who are looking for a better future." He consciously wanted the broadest possible coalition. That's how he carried 49 states in 1984. I think Republicans are going to be very foolish if they run around deciding that they're going to see how much they can purge us down to the smallest possible base.

GREGORY: When you were last here, I asked you if you were considering a run in 2012, you said probably not.

GINGRICH: Right.

GREGORY: Are you, are you thinking that through a little bit differently now?

GINGRICH: I'll, I'll be glad to accept an invitation in early 2011 to have that conversation, but I'm not...

GREGORY: So you're thinking about it?

GINGRICH: ...I'm not going to think about it till 2011.

GREGORY: All right, we're going to save the date. Speaker Gingrich, thank you very much.

GINGRICH: Good to be here.

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Well, it seems Tom Ridge isn't a Rush Limbaugh fan. On yesterday's State of the Union show on CNN:

KING: Where's Tom Ridge?

Are you in the Rush Limbaugh/Dick Cheney version of the Republican Party or the Colin Powell version of the Republican Party?

RIDGE: I'm in the Tom Ridge version of the party. And my version of the party is simply, when you're asked to serve, as I have been by two Republican presidents -- one gave me a draft notice and sent me to Vietnam and the other called me away from the office I had led as governor, and neither one asked me where I stood on gay rights or abortion. They said, "Will you serve?"

And I think, for the American public -- for the Republican Party to restore itself is not as a regional party but as a national party. We have to be far less judgmental about disagreements within the party and far more judgmental about our disagreement with our friends on the other side of the aisle.

KING: You've used those terms, "need to be less shrill, less judgmental." Who's being shrill? Who's being judgmental?

RIDGE: Well, I think a lot of our commentators are being shrill. I mean, I don't disagree...

KING; Rush?

RIDGE: Yes, I -- listen, Rush Limbaugh has an audience of 20 million people. A lot of people listen, daily, to him and live by very word. But words mean things, and how you use words is very important.

KING: I want to be clear, though. You think Rush is among those being too judgmental, too shrill?

RIDGE: Well, I think -- I think Rush -- Rush articulates his point of views in ways that offend very many. It's a matter of -- matter of language and a matter of how you use words. And it does get the base all fired up, and he's got strong following. But, personally, if he would listen to me -- and I doubt if he would -- the notion is, express yourselves, but let's respect others' opinions. And let's not be divisive.

Let's lead our party based on some principles that have been very much a part of who we are for decades, and let's be less shrill, in terms of -- and, particularly, not attack other individuals. Let's attack their ideas. Let's explain, in a rational, thoughtful, responsible and reasonable way why our ideas and our approach are more acceptable, why they should be more acceptable to the average citizen.

With Ridge the dynamic is kind of interesting, because he doesn't have go groveling to the Flaming Gasbag, so he may not wind up being forced to.

He also made clear that he disagreed with Dick Cheney:

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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

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"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 it. I believe we should build on it." - Colin Powell today on "Face The Nation," responding to Dick Cheney's comment that he would choose Rush Limbaugh over Colin Powell.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell calmly rebutted the GOP Gospel According to Dick on today's "Face the Nation." Cheney said in that interview he thought Colin Powell had "left the Republican party."

"By almost every demographic indicate, the Republican party is losing. The number of people who have identified themselves as Republicans have dropped significantly into the low 20s, and not all of them identify themselves as Republicans," Powell said. "I think the Republican party needs to take a good look at itself and decide what kind of party are we."

Host Bob Schieffer asked his reaction to Rush Limbaugh's statement that "the only reason he's [Powell] is voting for him [Obama] is because Barack Obama is black. Is he calling you a racist?" Powell called the remarks "unfortunate."

"Mr. Limbaugh saw fit to dismiss all those reasons [I gave] and put it in a racial context and ignored all the reasons I listed for it," Powell said. He said in 50 years, he voted for the person he thought was the best qualified at that time to lead the nation, and that he also voted for Lyndon Johnson, John Kennedy and Jimmy Carter.

"He shouldn't have a veto over what someone thinks. He's an entertainer, he is a radio figure and he is a significant one, but he's more than that.

"When the chairman of the RNC, Michael Steele, issues even the mildest of criticisms concerning Mr. Limbaugh, and then 24 hours later, the chairman of the RNC has to lay prostrate on the floor, apologizing for it; and when two congressmen offer the mildest criticism of Mr. Limbaugh, they too then 24 hours later have such pressure brought to bear on them that they too, had to change their view and apologize for criticizing him - well, if he's out there, he should be subject to criticism, just as I am subject to criticism, " he said.

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May 20, 2009 CNN's American Morning.

CHETRY: Well, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi still under fire this morning for her words that the CIA misled her about enhanced interrogation tactics. Many responded with surprise and some outrage at the claim, but should we really expect America's chief spy agency, known for its covert operations and layers of secrecy, to tell Congress everything?

Our next guest says not necessarily. Joining me now from Washington is Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson. He was the chief of staff for former secretary of state Colin Powell. Thanks for being with us this morning. Good to see you.

COL. LAWRENCE WILKERSON, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF FOR COLIN POWELL: Thank you for having me.

CHETRY: So, let's listen again to what Speaker Pelosi said about the information that the CIA provided her and other members of Congress.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: I am saying that they are misleading, that the CIA was misleading the Congress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: So, you say it's a common practice for the CIA not to tell Congress everything they're doing. It might not be policy, but you say it happens all the time. Give us some example.

WILKERSON: Well, it does happen, and let me say right off the bat -- let me just say something about my bona fides, as opposed to Michael Gerson's, for example, writing on the op ed page of "The Washington Post" this morning. "The Post" continues to stun me with what they allow to appear on their op ed pages, lambasting the Democrats and others who might as he calls it "attack the CIA." Well, Michael Gerson has no bona fidas. I got 35 years of bona fidas. I have used tactical operational, strategic and intelligence from the agency for 35 years in Vietnam all the way forward to Iraq.

I've studied this as an academic. I know about its origins in the OSS during World War II. I know about its installation in the 1947 National Security Act, and I know the crimes and ravages that have been perpetrated in the name of the American people, the blood and treasure that's being expended by the CIA over that half century. Plus, I also know the successes that it's achieved. So, it's a mixed bag.

But to answer your question directly, the CIA does not have the leadership, not the good people in the ranks of the CIA, but the leadership of the CIA does not have a stellar record about telling the full and unequivocal truth about its covert operations.

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ThinkProgress has the transcript:

SCARBOROUGH: Congressman, do you disagree with Rush Limbaugh that Colin Powell should leave the Republican Party?

PRICE: Look, it’s not up to Rush Limbaugh to decide who ought to be in the Republican Party. There are all sorts of wonderful folks across this land who hold dear the fundamental principles that we, as Republicans — [...]

SCARBOROUGH: Congressman, do you believe that Rush Limbaugh or Dick Cheney are better, quote — I’m just using terms that we hear every day on TV and radio — that they are somehow better Republicans than Colin Powell?

PRICE: No. Goodness.

How long before Rep. Price grovels before the Flaming Gasbag? It may be tough for him to beat some of the recent records.

And while he's at it, Limbaugh is probably due to call out Scarborough, too.

Dunno about the rest of you, but I'm only a little ways through this bowl of popcorn.

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On Larry King Live Jesse Ventura takes on the Bush administration chickenhawks and Rush Limbaugh, and defends Colin Powell. After being waterboarded himself in the SERE program, Ventura makes no bones about it. Waterboarding is torture. I'd like to see Hannity have Ventura on his show to debate the issue.

King's reaction to Ventura's straight talk on how terrible of a President W was is amusing. He's shocked...just shocked I tell you, that anyone would talk so badly about our former President.

KING: Joining us now, Jesse Ventura, former wrestler, former governor of Minnesota, former Navy SEAL, the author of "Don't Start The Revolution Without Me." That book is now out in paper back. Welcome to have you back, Jesse. There you see the cover of the book. How's Obama doing?

JESSE VENTURA, FMR. GOV. OF MINNESOTA: Too early to tell, Larry, really. In my opinion, George Bush is the worst president in my lifetime.

KING: Have an opinion, will you?

VENTURA: I will. I will. And he's the worst president in my lifetime. So Barack Obama, President Obama inherited something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. You know? Two wars, an economy that's borderline depression. So it's far too early to judge him 100 days in. I think if you have me back about two years from now, I can give you a much better of how he's doing.

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"If I had to choose in terms of being a Republican, I'd choose Rush Limbaugh," Cheney said when asked about whose vision of the GOP he'd side with. "My impression was that Colin was no longer a Republican."

"I don't think the Republican Party ought to move far to the left," Cheney said. "The suggestion our Democratic friends always make is, 'Well, if you Republicans were just more like Democrats, you'd win elections.' Well, I don't buy that."

I'm glad Dick Cheney continues to put his face out there as a spokesmen for the "new" GOP and as a torture apologist, but this brief part of the show demonstrates that Cheney is more impressed with a peddler of GOP propaganda and entertainment than he is defending one of his own and a man who sold the Iraq war to the American people.

Cheney always got into it with Powell over foreign policy so it's not a shock that he would be outspoken against him either.

Powell wanted to stay the course that took the diplomatic route as BushCo. went after Iraq, but when Bush told him we were going to war he signed on without giving his honest opinion. Many people forget that Colin Powell didn't even want to go to the UN for a resolution when they all decided to go to war with Iraq, but since Blair told Bush to get UN approval, he was forced to give a presentation they hoped would swing the country and the world against Saddam. And that presentation has tarnished his record more than anything. It's very fitting. Woodward's book Plan of Attack, reveals all this in detail. And as Digby and Bob Somerby have written, we have to be careful how Colin Powell is described because he's had his hand in a lot of very bad things.

Colin Powell is not only not a war hero, he's actually implicated in war crimes from two different wars --- as one of the "White House Principals" who watched the CIA act out torture techniques for their approval and as one of the men who tried to cover up My Lai. (He was involved in Iran-Contra too.) And that's not even taking into account his pivotal role in energetically selling the Iraq war with bogus intelligence. Certainly, the man cannot be separated from Dick Cheney on that issue.

He was one of the most powerful people in the Bush administration and he failed time after time to step up and use his vast personal popularity to stop them or slow them down. He is, in fact, the worst chickensh*t of the bunch since he had a separate power center and a special authority as an ex-general. Cheney may have been the chief architect, but Powell was the chief salesman and cover artist.

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Colin Powell's recent remarks thumping on Republicans for wandering off into the wilderness under the guidance of people like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter -- not to mention Karl Rove and Sean Hannity -- really seem to have upset at least Limbaugh and Hannity.

Limbaugh shot back by telling Powell to go join the Democrats. (And you wouldn't blame Powell if he took the defacto head of the conservative movement up on the invitation.)

Now, just for the record, here's what Powell actually said:

Powell said the GOP is "getting smaller and smaller" and "that's not good for the nation." He also said he hopes that emerging GOP leaders, such as House Minority Whip Cantor, will not keep repeating mantras of the far right.

"The Republican Party is in deep trouble," Powell told corporate security executives at a conference in Washington sponsored by Fortify Software Inc. The party must realize that the country has changed, he said. "Americans do want to pay taxes for services," he said. "Americans are looking for more government in their life, not less."

...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.

He also said that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate last year, is "a very accomplished person" but became "a very polarizing figure." He said the polarization was created by Palin's advisers.

Powell said he does not want Republicans to turn into Democrats but rather to build a vibrant party.

Hannity responded by devoting the better part of his Fox News show last night to the subject. First he had on Karl Rove to talk about it, which of course meant we got a Rove Moment: When he informed us that Powell's remarks about the toxic value of Limbaugh's hatemongering amounted to trying to silence Limbaugh. Because exercising your free-speech rights actually becomes censorship and suppression if you happen to say anything unpleasant about Republicans, no matter how truthful.

This, coming from the guy who never hesitated to suggest that Democrats were treasonous for criticizing George W. Bush's handling of the Iraq war. Or anything else.

Then Hannity brought on famous non-American Mark Steyn to further agree with him that the problem with Republicans is that they aren't conservative enough. (We like this advice, because it is a sure loser for the GOP.)

In any event, these exchanges produced two classic moments from Hannity of the pure, distilled Planet Wingnuttia worldview. (It's always fascinating, because it's such an alien world from the one the rest of us live in, and it has a certain amusement value as well.)

Hannity [to Rove]: He attacks Rush Limbaugh, and we'll get into that in just a second here. And I'm sitting back and he talked about the nastiness of Rush on the radio, which I don't hear, ever.

[...]

Hannity [to Steyn]: Can you name one area now where Republicans are more conservative than they were when Reagan was president? Because I can't.

Um, the hard part is figuring out where to start. There are so many to choose from.

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April 24, 2009 MSNBC Rachel Madow Show

Rachel Maddow talks to Lawrence Wilkerson about Dick Cheney's request to selectively declassify documents to try to prove "enhanced interrogation techniques" can't be considered torture because they worked.

RACHEL: On the issue of intelligence—tainted evidence and those things—were you ever present at meetings at which the interrogation of prisoners, like Abu Zubaida, other prisoners in those early days, where the interrogation was directed? Where specific interrogation techniques were approved. It has been reported on a couple of different sources that there were Principals Meetings, which you would have typically been there, where interrogations were almost play-by-play discussed.

POWELL: They were not play-by-play discussed but there were conversations at a senior level as to what could be done with respect to interrogation. I cannot go further because I don't have knowledge of all the meetings that took place or what was discussed at each of those meetings and I think it's going to have to be the written record of those meetings that will determine whether anything improper took place.

But it was always the case that, at least from the State Department's standpoint, we should be consistent with the requirements of the Geneva Convention. And that's why this was such a controversial, controversial issue. But you’ll have to go, and in due course I think we all will go, to the written record of what memos were signed. I'm not sure what memos were signed or not signed. I didn't have access to all of that information.

MADDOW: If there was a meeting, though, at which senior officials were saying, were discussing and giving the approval for sleep deprivation, stress positions, water boarding, were those officials committing crimes when they were giving that authorization?

POWELL: You’re asking me a legal question. I mean I don't know that any of these items would be considered criminal. And I will wait for whatever investigations that the government or the Congress intends to pursue with this.

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In an interview that will air this Sunday with CNN's Fareed Zakaria, General Colin Powell sounds off on Sarah Palin and her assertion that "small town values" are somehow better than values gleaned from elsewhere. In Powell's case, the South Bronx.

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN ANCHOR: What do you think is going to happen to the Republican Party? You sounded concerned then, and you always have been concerned about certain aspects of your party. Do you think it's moving in the right direction?

POWELL: We don't know yet. I don't know yet.

I think that in the latter months of the campaign, the party moved further to the right. Governor Palin, to some extent, pushed the party more to the right. And I think she had something of a polarizing effect when she talked about small-town values are good.

Well, most of us don't live in small towns. And I was raised in the South Bronx, and there's nothing wrong with my value system from the South Bronx.

Republicans like to run around complaining about "elitism" and how liberals somehow look down on other non-liberals. Yet, for the majority of the campaign, Sarah Palin hit the stump time after time essentially flipping off large swaths of the country, in some cases even labeling them un-American. Republican hypocrisy is nothing new, of course, but it's pretty interesting how the "elitism" narrative only cuts one way. The GOP noise machine sure has done a good job of advancing these false narratives.

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CNN's Hugh Riminton catches up to Colin Powell in Hong Kong to get his reaction to Barack Obama's win yesterday. Powell is obviously very choked up at the thought of us having our first African American President.