Colin Powell Celebrates Festivus On Meet the Press

"I've got a lot of problems with you people, and now you're gonna hear about it" ~ Frank Costanza

Colin Powell's obviously an adherent of the sect, but he missed the holiday. It didn't stop him from airing his grievances with the GOP today, though. And man, are there a lot of them.

"There's also a dark vein of intolerance in some parts of the party ... What do I mean by that? What I mean by that is they still sort of look down on minorities."

...

"When I see a former governor say that the president is 'shuckin' and jivin'.' That's a racial-era slave term," [Andy -- he's referring to Sarah Palin, who he didn't have the stones to name]

...

"He didn't say [Obama] was slow, he was tired, he didn't do well; he said he was 'lazy,' ... Now, it may not mean anything to most Americans, but to those of us who are African Americans, the second word is "shiftless," and then there's a third word that goes along with it." [Andy -- ditto for John Sununu]

...

"The whole birther movement: Why do senior Republican leaders tolerate this kind of discussion within the party? ... I think the party has to take a look at itself."

It sure seems Colin Powell, self-proclaimed "moderate Republican" and two-time Obama voter, has a lot of problems with the GOP. Here, let him sum it up.

"In recent years, there's been a significant shift to the right, and we have seen what that shift has produced: two losing presidential campaigns," Powell said. "I think what the Republican Party needs to do now is take a very hard look at itself and understand that the country has changed. The country is changing demographically. And if the Republican Party does not change along with that demographic, they're going to be in trouble."

Powell said the Republican Party in addition to being the party of lower taxes, has become cast at the party of the rich. He said that Republicans need to take up education, immigration and climate change policy before the next election.

Education, immigration and climate change policy? Are there cue cards that get held up in front of every Sunday show-appearing "moderate Republican", because that's what all these guys say. And I'm sure it's racist to point that out.

According to Powell, everything is apparently racist. Referring to a white guy as "lazy" means he's lazy. Referring to a black guy as "lazy" means The N-Word™. Does someone have a diagram of how this works, because I swear I can't keep it straight.

But it sure seems like if you default to "all criticism of Obama is racist" you'll be right 99 times out of 100.

I found the "lazy" example particularly interesting coming from Powell, though. If you'll remember back to the campaign (sorry ... open wound there), John Sununu, the target of Powell's anonymous swipe this morning, said the only reason Powell voted for Obama was because he was black. I guess Powell's been carrying that little chip around on his shoulder for a while. (yeah, yeah, chip ... shoulder ... racist!)

Funny, but you know who else said Colin Powell voted for Obama because he was black? Colin effing Powell, that's who.

... And at the end, I cannot say I was totally colorblind. ...

As a moderate Republican, Powell clearly came to the conclusion that the policies Obama supported were more in line with his own than those advocated by the firebreathing, far right-wing candidates we've nominated in the last two elections ... John McCain and Mitt Romney. So the non-colorblindness didn't really put it over the top, you see.

The funniest part of the whole thing to me though, was Powell's complaint about the birthers being allowed to voice their opinions and his desire that the GOP shut them up. If they had that power, I'd much rather they apply it to "Republicans" who only get invited to the Sunday shows to trash the party.

The cringeworthy interview with unindicted gun criminal David Gregory appears below the fold.

posted by Andy at 03:50 PM

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