Garden State Patriot

Colin Powell appeared on Face the Nation today and, among other things, reacted to comments made last week by Dick Cheney while, typically, calling for expanding the party’s base. Here is the interview in full.

Let’s make no mistake. Colin Powell is an American hero and success story. His accomplishments serving his country are beyond admirable. Unfortunately, his credibility as a Republican is little. He has never run for office and compiled a record of legislative or executive accomplishments. He has not done anything to help the party win elections as far as I can recall. When he was Secretary of State under ‘W’ he was known more for being a voice of opposition in the administration. But now somehow we should listen to him when it comes to rebuilding our party?

For argument’s sake, let’s accept Powell’s premise. RINOs like Powell like to use rhetoric about expanding the party’s base and being a big tent. Shouldn’t they then be asked to provide us with a plan on how to do so? However, they NEVER say what they mean by that. They never lay out a road map for it.

Shouldn’t RINOs also then be asked to provide evidence that moderating the party’s stances will actually be effective and also be able to point to the successes of moderates in the party? This, too, never occurs.

Powell points to his previous votes for Republican candidates over the years. That may be well and good. But as in the world of sports, one has to ask “what have you done for me lately?” Last time I checked, Colin Powell was endorsing and voting for a Democrat for President. Can someone please tell me how this helps build the Republican Party? Couple this with Powell’s unfounded criticism of the party moving too far right and, in my mind, he has undermined any credibility he has as a Republican.

John McCain represented the EXACT kind of candidate Powell suggests the party needs and he publicly shunned him in favor of the most left-wing candidate in the nation’s history. Party building indeed.

RINOs, of course, also love to castigate conservatives and marginalize them as being divisive. Former Homeland Security chief and Pennsylvania Governor, Tom Ridge, took this page out of the RINO playbook today saying about Rush Limbaugh: 

“I think Rush articulates his point of view in ways that offend very many,” Ridge said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“It’s a matter of language and a matter of how you use words. It does get the base all fired up and he’s got a strong following. But personally, if he would listen to me and I doubt if he would, the notion is express yourselves but let’s respect others opinions and let’s not be divisive.”

You see, it also helps to build the party by attacking the base. Yet, on the other hand, RINOs never seem to have a bad word for their liberal opponents, do they?

As a result, it is hard for conservatives to see the message coming from the moderate wing of the party that we need to “reach out” to really mean that we should “sell out.” What they really mean is that Republicans should act more like Democrats – NOT that we need to do a better job of explaining why Republican principles and ideas are better. If Powell were a real Republican, he would have stood up and said last fall that Barack Obama was smart and articulate but just had the wrong ideas for America; then threw his support behind John McCain. But that he did not do.

So, the burden is on the RINOs and moderates to show the rest of us evidence that they are right because, quite frankly, up until now I have not seen it. However, what I have seen is that when the Republican Party has had its greatest successes, it has been boldly conservative; like it was under Ronald Reagan and, again, in 1994 with the Contract with America. Being boldly conservative, Mr. Powell and Mr. Ridge, is what the Republican Party needs to do to win elections; not watering the party down and turning it into a bad replica of the Democrat’s.

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!