Rachel Maddow's brilliant exposé of Republican voter suppression efforts in North Carolina Wednesday night set the stage for an interesting moment on Thursday morning when Colin Powell laid the smackdown on Governor Pat McCrory and North Carolina Republicans' efforts to suppress voting.

Speaking at the CEO Forum in Raleigh, NC, Gen. Powell criticized Republicans for making it more difficult for people to vote, saying that the GOP should be working to make it easier, not harder. And then he took a swipe at McCrory:

In one comment, he seemed to rebuke McCrory for suggesting that voter fraud likely exists but is hard to detect. The governor had compared it to insider trading.

"You can say what you like, but there is no voter fraud," Powell said. "How can it be widespread and undetected?"

Powell, who served under President George W. Bush, also said the new sends the wrong message to minority voters. "What it really says to the minority voters is ... 'We really are sort-of punishing you,'" he said.

It's hard to understand why Powell remains a Republican, to be honest. He's blunt in his criticism but still supports a political party that is hell bent for leather on carrying out Paul Weyrich's directive to have less people vote because it works to conservatives' benefit.

When you watch that full segment from The Maddow Show, you'll see just how hard they're working in North Carolina. Between altering the minutes to make themselves look better than they are to admitting their own intellectual dishonesty, it's clear that a cabal of Republicans who now control every elections board in North Carolina are actively engaged in making sure only old white Republicans vote in future elections.