Gen. Colin Powell was on Face the Nation today, trashing
the Republican Party again, as if he has some particular moral
authority. I beg to differ. Colin Powell has almost as little
moral authority as did the bystanders in the Kitty Genovese rape
case. While his own administration, and especially a
very good man named Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was being raped by
Patrick Fitzgerald's out-of-control investigation into the
Valerie Plame leak, Powell and his top aide Richard Armitage
stood by silently even though both knew that Armitage had
been (without malice aforethought) the actual source of the leak.
To let Libby (and Karl Rove and others) twist in the wind for so
long when Powell and Armitage knew what had really happened was
the stance of either two cowards or, more likely, two vindictive
political infighters who cared more about seeing their
adversaries (in internal administration disputes) be kneecapped
than they cared about seeing justice done and the truth be made
public.
And for Powell, who never put himself up for any public election
and who never has dealt with fiscal policy, to blather on to the
effect that the American people actually want higher taxes and
bigger government is for him to show his utter obliviousness
about public opinion and about wise management of the public
fisc.
I had long been a fan of Colin Powell even while disagreeing with
him on social issues. And I have publicly credited him even after
the Plame case for something few others have recognized him for,
namely his superb diplomacy that brought Pakistan in (originally)
as a real ally during the major part of the war in Afghanistan
even while not losing at all the U.S.'s growing alliance with
India (Pakistan's frequent enemy). So I am willing to acknowledge
his contibutions to this nation. But his actions during the Plame
imbroglio were those of a cretin. And he has offered nothing
positive since then, only criticisms of the sort given by a man
settling personal scores. For those reasons, he should stop
pushing his mug into public settings. Instead, he should find a
nice shady rock, with plenty of crawl space, to use as shelter.
