Limbaugh and Cheney: Wrong on Colin Powell

Rush Limbaugh’s attacks are not keeping General Colin Powell up at night.

He sleeps just fine.

However, these attacks are keeping ME wide awake because Gen. Powell should not be attacked for endorsing a Democrat – while staying in the GOP – and because Rush’s comments are so counter-productive for our party.

I was stunned when Limbaugh said, “what Colin Powell needsto do is close the loop and become a Democrat.”With only 21% of the the voting-age public now self-identifying as Republican, explain to me how asking a high-profile Republican with a 79% approval rating to leave the party helps the GOP regain its footing.

Is that some kind of ‘new math’?

Now jumping on the anti-Powell bandwagon, former Vice President Dick Cheney said in an interview on CBS: “I think my take on it was Colin had already left the party.”

Mr. Vice President, General Colin Powell is a Republican and is not leaving the party. Deal with it.

Further making Republicans cringe in embarrassment, Cheney went on to say that he would choose Rush Limbaugh over Colin Powell to represent the GOP. Cheney must have borrowed Rush’s ‘new math’ calculator – dump the four-star General with a 79% approval rating for the radio talk show host with a 19% approval ratings in order to GAIN supporters?

Our political goal is to regain seats in the House and Senate in 2010. It is a basic fact of governing is that factions have to unite in order to get a majority. The big-tent theory of the Republican party holds that, to regain power, we have to bring together moderate and conservative Republicans voters. Of course, we cannot all agree on every issue, but the objective is to stick together to win elections

We need to show that we have the ideas and plans to get our nation out of this recession and on the “right track.” This is all-hands-on-deck time for the GOP, and all ideas on the table; it’s not time to drive away our supporters or reject fresh visions.

I listen to Rush’s show and I am a fan. I am a conservative. I used to talk to him on the phone when I was Majority Whip Tom DeLay’s Communications Director. But I think what he is saying is offensive to Gen. Powell personally and detrimental to our party and to regaining power in Washington.

Rush’s enormous audience of 20 million listeners is one of the most valuable tools we have to keep the Republican base informed and engaged in the process. But I wish he would stop using that valuable airtime and audience to attack Republicans, as he did when he routinely went after McCain in ’08.

We are already the underdogs – having lost the House, Senate and White House in the past year – and our party numbers are at historic lows. He should spend his time going after the Democrats’ agenda, policies, legislation – there is plenty of material out there to fill the show every day.

The Democrats’ latest secret strategy – to make Rush Limbaugh the “face” of the Republican party – has us on alert. Stanley Greenberg, James Carville, and Paul Begala saw how negative Rush polls with moderates and independents, so they came up with a scheme to have Democrats mention Rush whenever possible to raise the public awareness of him and to attempt to tarnish Republicans.

I suppose all their bipartisan and new-Washington talk for the Obama administration was just a cover for their continued negativity and partisanship. Their efforts to systematically and deliberately use Rush Limbaugh this way just goes to show it is business as usual with this lot.

But Republicans cannot allow ourselves to get sucked into the Democrats’ taunting or Carville-Begala negativism by fighting amongst ourselves.

This brings me back to my original point that Rush Limbaugh’s one-sided fight with Colin Powell is playing right into the hands of the Democrats.

General Powell, a 35-year Army veteran served two tours in Vietnam, oversaw the first Gulf War, the invasion of Panama and served as Secretary of State during 9/11 and the two ensuing wars. My point is that he has lived through too much to care about political squabbles or a radio talk show host’s attacks.

But let the record be clear: Colin Powell is a Republican. He endorsed and voted for President Obama because he thought we needed him to run the country now.

Most offensive of all Rush’s attacks is when he said that Gen. Powell is “just mad at me because I’m the one person in the country who had the guts to explain his endorsement of Obama. It was purely and solely based on race.” That comment is racist and beyond offensive.

Rush has never talked to Colin Powell and does not have any insight into his thinking or decision to endorse Obama. His accusation is based on supposition and it’s wrong.

Powell spent months considering the policies, skills and personalities of McCain and Obama and determined, in the end, to go with the Democrat. Whether you agree or disagree with Powell’s decision, it is shameful to disregard his careful decision and suggest he just endorsed the black candidate.

Why does Rush ignore Powell’s thoughtful explanation for his decision and instead jump straight to the simplistic conclusion that it was a decision only about race? Again, on this point too, Rush is just flat-out wrong and making the Republican party seem racist, which we are not.

Rush needs to be reminded of the wisdom of the great President Ronald Reagan – for whom Powell served as National Security Adviser. Reagan’s 11th commandment:

“Thou shalt not speak ill of any other Republican.”

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