Colin Powell weighed in this morning on what he called a "dark vein of intolerance" in some parts of the Republican Party that "still sort of look down on minorities."
Powell, a Republican, said the party has to "take a look at itself" and "think first about what's the party actually going to represent?"
The former Secretary of State also endorsed President Obama's nominee to fill another cabinet position: Chuck Hagel as Defense Secretary. Powell applauded Hagel's "very distinguished public service record," and argued that many of the criticisms opponents have levied against Hagel were fair. Although, he said, "when they go over the edge and say because Chuck said 'Jewish lobby' he's anti-Semitic, that's disgraceful."
Ultimately, Powell thinks Hagel will be confirmed by the Senate.
(Watch the full interview with Colin Powell here)
Also don't miss our roundtable discussion that broke down the the coming battles over the presidents cabinet, the gun-control proposals that Vice President Biden will present, and whether Newark Mayor Cory Booker will be New Jersey's next Senator.
We'll be back next week. If it's Sunday, it's Meet the Press.
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The Colin Powell Effect
I think many Americans identify with Colin Powell. He reminds us that when we are in a position where our voice would matter on an issue, we should seize that opportunity and speak up. The General was once in a situation where he knew his gut was telling him "no"--or at minimum, he had serious doubts. And yet, he remained quiet.
Instead, knowing that if you keep your powder dry for a while you can always live to fight another day and other battles. This soldier has made it a habit, since Iraq, to march directly into the clearing and go on the offensive whenever he sees the enemy of yesteryear rear its ugly head again.
Well done, General, well done.
Mr. Powell is, as many Liberals out there, Dazed and Confused. He has the audacity to say he is a Republican, after he has voted twice for Obama??? I know about voting your conscience, but never about voting your color... I have to admit, he had us all fooled when we even thought about him as a possible candidate to the white house for the Republican Party. To see him on NBC, nonetheless, critisizing and putting down the GOP, instead of doing something to fix the problems he says exist within the party. If he is that much Republican, why isn't he working and Lobying to get our agenda forward and stop the Liberal Socialist Movement from taking root in the first place, because this movement started way back in 2000 with the "Al Gore's Invention of the internet" and "Al Gore's Tree Hugging/Global Warming Business". That's when he was supposed to step up and fix the problems instead of running around running his mouth. Mr. Powell should be out there working for the country and not for the Political Engine of the Liberals in Washington. Color, Religion and wealth are the cards that the Liberals have been playing all along, since the 1960's, and forgetting about the needs of the country. STOP HIPHENATING AND BECOME 'AMERICANS'... Unitedstadians is a better name, I think, but 'Americans' fighting the same fight to eliminate hunger and homelessness HERE in the USA first... lets fight the fight for our failed education system which is modeled more for the illegal immigrants than for the citizens of this country, (the case in California and many other States where the population is mainly Latinos). Thank You.
When a black man vote for a black candidate over a white one, it is always about color. When whites vote for whites over blacks, it is all about substance. Give me a break. Since Obama came on the scene, all I've heard from so called conservatives is their focus on black people voting for the black man. Seems you are playing the color card more than the liberals. Why didn't blacks fall at the feet of 999, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson instead of Clinton and Bush.
One more thing; if blacks always vote color over all other criteria, why did Senator John Kerry kick Al Sharpton's A$$ among black voters?
BTW, Chuck Hagel graduated from the same school as Colin Powell... "The School of Back Stabbing"
Because they don't believe in GOP bull $h!t anymore, they are back stabbers?
To Powell, the term "Jewish lobby" is not anti-semetic, but it is racist to call the President "lazy" during the first debate with Romney. Why did Gregory not pick up on that contradiction?
The comments of Senators Graham and Cruz are knee-jerk right wing positions only. Cruz, in particular, in a very recent interview revealed himself to be a true primitive. Let us hope that Harry Reid pulls a perfect rabbit out of the hat to end the lazy-daisy filibuster ploy these guys have been inflicting on the nation. McCain too has become an extremist party chess piece in his latter years. Too bad.
Yeah! McCain used to be much more results oriented. Here lately he seems to have become just a bitter old man hell bent on revenge.
Powell was much, much too kind in describing the GOP/Tea Bigot Party of Fear, Hate and God as a "dark vein of intolerance".
Dsastrsrus: Colin Powell, four star general, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, once a young NS Adviser in the White House, finally W's Secty of State, has always been torn between his soldier's instinct to support his team, and the clear demands of statesmanship for wise decision-making. Provided false, manufactured intelligence about WMD in Saddam's Iraq, duped into accepting it and presenting the tainted "yellow cake" story at the UN, he struggled to remain loyal. Ultimately he resigned after hanging on for four years. His successor, Condoleeza Rice, showed no sign of similar divided conscience in the W. White House. Statesmanship's demands always gave way to party loyalty. Looking back today, Colin Powell comes off best. Never a party hack, he tried loyally to serve two masters, an amoral Dick Cheney-Karl Rove White House and party, and his soldier's conscience. It could not be done. But the American people have understood his dilemma. He remains an admired retired statesman.
Ok I got that out, let me post what I came for: I got words for Meet the Press, UP with Hayes and the other MSNBC anchors.
Teachable moment, HA that’s a good one. COME ON, bulls**t the viewers with the Trillion dollar coin instead of getting to the root of our nations economic woes.
A) what happens to the money once our government gets their hands on it. FOLLOW THE MONEY. Just the 8 years of Bush/Cheney is enough to keep viewers interested for decades
B) identify the serious misallocations of wealth and resources, remedy it and hold those responsible for waste fraud, abuse, war profiteering, scandal and the corporate crime wave.
Listening to you fools talk about your trillion dollar bulls**t is almost unbearable. I think I’ll turn you off and listen to a Thom Hartmann or Mike Malloy stream or maybe watch some old video of “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” and dream about the days when journalists/news anchors actually DID THEIR JOB!
MSNBC with your patented opinion mill has lost it’s appeal and now just makes me ill. ( I do like Rachel Maddow but the rest is getting old) I want to see some in-depth investigative reports on B) you f***’n pussies cyberbitchslap2.blogspot.com
SpoAct replied just now
Jeez, I turn on the TV and you’re even more fluff than yesterday Steroids, baseball, WOW! Yea let’s get Congress to waste our tax dollars debating steroids and baseball because a bunch of news people do fluff stories instead of covering the vital stories of the day. Maybe Congress and the news media should be worried about other drug stories that go beyond a few millionaire sports figures.
How about this? I wonder if Senator McConnell, the Pentagon/DOD cares so many of their Veterans are addicted to LEGAL pharmaceuticals and pain killers (isn’t former 1st Lady Barbara Bush a majority stockholder in several pharmaceutical companies?) Hhhmmmm… Or that pill pushers are preying on the wives and kids of soldiers serving oversees?
Oh look you started out today’s program allowing Mike Huckabee (and the other highly paid puppets from the Republican propaganda machine) to divert MSNBC from the REAL news of the day. Yes, that’s what the AMERICAN PUBLIC NEEDS TO KNOW! The women count in his cabinet? Yes MSNBC, let a chuckling fool like Huckabee steer the debate with the premise that Republicans are better for women than the Obama/Biden Administration. COME ON? I missed it but did any of you guest experts ask the question,
“Is the President is a male chauvinist pig?”
(lol)
I don’t know if you geniuses at MSNBC noticed but FOX Spin… aaahhhh I mean, News is playing you people for fools. They do this BS all the time and you guys fall for it over and over. They put out some degenerate low grade thought process or babbling idiot premise an d then MSNBC hosts fall all over each other making fun or tearing down the Conservative wacko BS. AND THAT’S ALL IT IS BULLS**T! Diverting resources, revenue and PRECIOUS broadcast airtime AWAY from the ANYONE doing in-depth investigative reports on the vital issues or Corporate Crime wave or war profiteers or ETC.
GOOD JOB 4TH ESTATE, I’m going to make sure the news media from 1984 - 2013 goes down in history as the biggest bunch of cocktail party loving, ladder climbing sell-outs in the history of USA
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“responsible journalism is dead as the sperm on Monica Lewinsky’s blue dress” SPQR
If Colin Powell disagrees as what he seees as the Republican view on minorities (and he is right), then why is he a Republican?
General Powell is the kind of person that used to predominate in the Republican party, and made me proud to be a Republican. I no longer believe in either party, but it's good to hear someone finally making sense.
Powell is just one more casualty of the W administration. He paid a dear price for loyalty to a fool. Nevertheless, he is still a great and wise man.
During this morning's (1/15/13) show of MSNBC's Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough made an off the cuff remark about killing the President. This happened as co-host Mika Brzezinski was announcing the upcoming segment just before a break, about an interview with bestselling author Brad Meltzer. The segment that Mika highlighted was for Meltzer's book "The Fifth Assassin" that is about the four assassinations of presidents in American history. Joe Scarborough, a former Republican Congressman turned talk show host, made a very disturbing comment at the wrong time saying, "How about the assassination of Hope." President Obama's original campaign slogan of Hope is often talked about on the Morning Joe program as a synonym for President Obama. Since when do we joke about killing the President of the United States? The question now becomes even louder for the 2nd term of the Obama administration: Since the Republicans tried to assassinate the character of the President to get control in the first four years even secretly meeting the night of his first inauguration to only destroy and obstruct his presidency. Since that didn't work, will he now need increased security to keep them from doing the unthinkable to get control? It's one thing to read Meltzer's book or watch the recent episodes of ABC television's "Scandal." But we are now in an era where the campaign trail had the Republican Presidential challenger's son on record as saying he "Wanted to punch the President' and now a Republican talk show host is on national television inferring that someone should assassinate the President of the United States. Politics, finances, and guns aside, these next four years are important to our growth or our demise as a nation.