Colin Powell Shoots Back at 'Mr. Limbow'

OK, so Colin Powell is still a Republican. That part of what the former secretary of state said on CBS's "Face the Nation'' this morning wasn't really news; if Powell stayed "loyal'' -- to his party and his boss, anyway -- as we marched mistakenly off to war in Iraq, partly on his say-so, then no way was he going to let El Rushbo send him running off in tears, or let Dick Cheney force him to admit he's changed his mind.

Still, Powell sure did sound like an Obama Democrat, a soft-spoken, let's-meet-in-the-middle kind of guy, DLC all the way: Everybody wins! He noted that Republicans talk about reducing the size of government but did not actually do anything about it when they had the chance: "My Republican friends sort of get mad when I say we need government. People want effective, responsible government. Republicans have not cut much government, even though they talk about limited government.'' (We for instance needed a better FEMA when Katrina hit, he said, and better regulation of our financial institutions, didn't we?)

Powell also described his party as insufficiently broad-minded and welcoming to minorities: "I have always felt the Republican Party should be more inclusive than it generally has been over the years.'' He called himself a Jack Kemp sort of Republican, someone who believes in "sharing the wealth, though that became a bad term last fall.'' (Last fall? Your fellow Republicans have always had a word for that world-view, sir, and it's socialist.)

On the subject of torture, he said he had "no idea'' whether it works, which given his long military career was an odd cop-out. And he claimed he didn't even know we were using enhanced interrogation techniques on terror suspects; what was he, off kibitzing with Nancy Pelosi while waterboarding was being discussed? "I was aware that those enhanced interrogation techniques were being considered,'' Powell said, but not that they were actually being used. "It's easy now to look back in the cold light of day and say, You shouldn't have done any of that.' Now we see that these are not appropriate'' means of interrogating terror suspects. So, right and wrong are situational?

Most surprising, though, was that he let Limbaugh win by stooping to his level; doesn't he know to only fight with his equals – or if possible, his betters? He lost ground and gave away stature the minute he showed just how much General Limbaugh, whose Dittohead soldiers march off to do as they're told, has gotten under his skin.

Yes, it was highly entertaining hearing General Powell repeatedly refer to Limbaugh as "Mr. Limbow.'' (As in – rhymes with wow -- I do not bow to Limbow.) But in mispronouncing his name, Powell betrayed his anger at being called out by this entertainer: "Mr. Limbow is entitled to his opinion...He is an entertainer, he's a radio figure and he is a significant one, but he's more than that. When the chairman of the RNC, Michael Steele, issues the mildest of criticism concerning Mr. Limbow and 24 hours later has to lay prostrate on the floor?...If he's out there he should be subject to criticism, just as I am subject to criticism,'' Powell said, cocking his head in annoyance -- and forfeiting the match.

And for a tough-guy military man, boy does he feel boo-hoo sorry for himself: Any moderate voice within his party, he said, is "not that vocal about it, because if they are vocal about it you're going to get your voice mail filled up and you're going to get lots of emails like I do.''

All in all, I found it an infuriating performance – not despite some of the better points he made today, but because of them; where was all this great good sense when the country needed it? Why couldn't he have gone on TV and said some of these things back when they might have mattered?