Colin Powell has left the Republican Party. (CNN)

[yaesu]

Link to tweet

[madaboutharry]

1. No surprise there.

He has been angry for a while.

Did he ever apologize for his bullshit testimony after 9/11?

[servermsh]

2. Could the last one to leave please turn the lights out?

[COL Mustard]

72. Paging Tommy Tuberville

Please pick up the red courtesy phone.

[lame54]

81. Were they ever on?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Force cons to choose between the Rotting Elephant Carcass party or the MAGA Q God Emperor party. .nt

[samnsara]

4. hes the only Republican I would have ever voted for

[exboyfil]

10. I would for Romney before him

He let himself be used for the Iraq War justification. He was in the position to do the right thing and he failed. This Maryland governor seems like a pretty good guy as well.

[JonLP24]

18. Even Colin Powell endorsed Obama in his race against Romney

Romney changed his position from MA governor, to the GOP primary, and for the general election. Romney doesn't have any convictions except for being anti-Trump.

[keithbvadu2]

47. During his campaign, he would take whatever position the current audience wanted to hear.

Romney was very flexible.

During his campaign, he would take whatever position the current audience wanted to hear.

[DanieRains]

57. Romney Would Tell One Audience One Thing And Another The Exact Opposite The Same Day

I remember the media pointing this out.

Romney has more to be admired than most Republicans, but it is still almost zero.

Honesty, not even close.

[3catwoman3]

62. Flexible is a generous adjective.

I recall him being referred to as “Windsock Willard.”

[mac2766]

67. Check his business history....

and how he "made jobs"... actually, how he ended many MANY jobs in America with his company. He may seem like a "nice guy", but he's a profiteer first and foremost at the expense of entire communities. He doesn't care about Americans, only his bottom line. His "nice-guy" routine is a front so that he can run for the Presidency in the future. He's just another greedy republican who chose a path that might appeal to those who don't understand where he comes from.

[Brother Buzz]

16. Not me. Pete McCloskey was the last Republican I held any respect for

Oh wait, Pete "I say a pox on them and their values' McCloskey is now a registered Democrat

Open Letter:
April, 2007

McCloskeys have been Republicans in California since 1859, the year before Lincoln's election. My great grandfather, John Henry McCloskey, orphaned in the great Irish potato famine of 1843, came to California in 1853 as a boy of 16, and joined the party just before the Civil War.

By 1890 he and my grandfather, both farmers, made up two of the twelve members of the Republican Central Committee of Merced County. My father's most memorable expletive came when I was a boy of 10 or 11: "That damn Roosevelt is trying to pack the Supreme Court!"

I registered Republican in 1948 after reaching the age of 21. We were the party of civil rights, of free choice for women and fiscal responsibility. Since Teddy Roosevelt, we had favored environmental protection, and most of all we stood for fiscal responsibility, honesty, ethics and limited government intrusion into our personal lives and choices. We accepted that one the duties of wealth was to pay a higher rate of income tax, and that the estates of the wealthy should contribute to the national treasury in reasonable measure.

I was proud to serve with Republicans like Gerry Ford, the first George Bush and Bob Dole.

In 1994, however, Newt Gingrich brought a new kind of Republicanism to power, and the election of George W. Bush in 2000 has led to wholly new concept of governance. The bureaucracy has mushroomed in size and power. The budget deficits have become astronomical. Our historical separation of church and state has been blurred. We have seen a succession of ethical scandals, congressmen taking bribes, and abuse of power by both the Republican House leadership and the highest appointees of the White House.

The single cardinal principle of political science, that power corrupts, has come to apply not only to Republican leaders like Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham, Bob Ney and John Doolittle, but to a succession of White House officials and appointees. The stench of Jack Abramoff has permeated much of the Washington Republican establishment.

The Justice Department, guardian of of our rule of law, has been compromised. It's third ranking official, a graduate of Pat Robertson's dubious law school, has taken the 5th Amendment.

Men who have never felt the fear of combat, and who largely dodged military service in their youth, have led us into grievous wars in far off places with no thought of the diplomacy, grace and respect for other peoples and their cultures which has been an American trademark for at least the last two thirds of a century. We have lost the respect and affection of most of the world outside our borders. My son, Peter, one of the U.S. prosecutors at The Hague of the war crimes in Serbia and elsewhere, tells me that people of other countries no longer look at the country which countenances torture as a beacon for the world and the rule of law.

Earth Day, that bi-partisan concept of Gaylord Nelson in 1970, has become the focus of almost hatred by today's Republican leadership. Many still argue that global warming is a hoax, and that Bush has been right to demean and suppress the arguments of scientists at the E.P.A., Fish & Wildlife and U.S.Geological Survey.

I say a pox on them and their values.

Until the past few weeks, I had hoped that the party could right itself, returning to the values of the Eisenhowers, Fords and George H. W. Bush.

What finally turned me to despair, however, was listening to the reports, or watching on C-Span, a whole series of congressional oversight hearings on C-Span, held by old friends and colleagues like Pat Leahy, Henry Waxman, Norm Dicks, Nick Rahall, Danny Akaka and others, trying to learn the truth on the misdeeds and incompetence of the Bush Administration. Time after time I saw Republican Members of the House and Senate. speak out in scorn or derision about these exercises of Congress oversight responsibility being "witch-hunts" or partisan attempts to distort the actions of people like the head of the General Service Administration and the top political appointees in the Justice and Interior Departments. Disagreement turned into disgust.

I finally concluded that it was a fraud for me to remain a member of this modern Republican Party, that there were only a few like Chuck Hegel, Jack Warner, Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins I could respect.

Two of the best, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, and Jim Leach of Iowa, after years of battling for balance and sanity, were defeated last November, and it seems that every Republican presidential candidate is now vying for the support of the Pat Robertsons and Jerry Falwells rather than talking about a return to the values of the party I joined nearly 59 years ago. My favorite spokesmen have beome Senators Jim Webb and Barack Obama.

And so it was, that while at the Woodland courthouse the other day, passing by the registrar's office, I filled out the form to re-register as a Democrat.

The issues Helen (McCloskey) and I care about most, public financing of elections, a reliable paper ballot trail, independent re-districting to replace gerrymandering, the right of a woman to choose not to bring a child into the world, a reversal of the old Proposition 13 and term limits which have so hurt California's once superb education system and the competence of our Legislature, are now almost universally opposed by California's elected Republicans, and the occasional attempts at reform by our Governor are looked on with grim disdain by most of them.

From Helen's and my standpoint, being farmers in Yolo County gives us the opportunity to work for purposes which were once Republican, but can no longer be found at Republican conventions and discussions.

I hope this answers your questions about the party and a government I have served in either civil or military service under ten presidents, five Republican and five Democrat ... I doubt it will be of much interest other than to our friends, but it has been a decision not easily taken.

Respectfully,
Pete McCloskey

[EarnestPutz]

52. Thanks for posting this. Quotes from Eisenhower or Goldwater are usually used to illustrate....

...how far the Republicans have devolved, but this is really much more instructive.

[scarletwoman]

53. Wow! Thank you so much for posting that letter! Excellent synopsis of the decline of the GOP.

Definitely worth a read, and worth saving.

Thanks again for posting it!

[Kid Berwyn]

69. McCloskey reported the truth about Pat Robertson during Korean War.

Barracks Mate Paints Unflattering Portrait of Pat Robertson

LAURA KING
AP, December 3, 1987

Excerpt...

Robertson’s action against McCloskey stems from a 1986 letter in which McCloskey said Robertson used the political influence of his late father, U.S. Sen. Willis Robertson, to avoid combat duty in Korea.

McCloskey, who sailed to Korea on a troop ship with Robertson, said Robertson told fellow Marines that he called his father from Japan and arranged to be taken off the vessel.

Robertson was assigned to a training facility in Japan for several months before he was sent to Korea.

Most of the deposition, taken at Brosman’s New Orleans home, dealt with what Brosman had heard from others about Robertson’s assignment to the Japanese facility.

He said before he met Robertson, a Marine acquaintance introduced him to a third Marine who said he had been shipped over with ?the son of a United States senator. The senator had used his pull to get the son taken out ... and assigned ... in Japan so as to avoid having to go to Korea and probably be in combat.

Continues...

https://apnews.com/article/69a6b02cd742868d7beda31990af4662

[Brother Buzz]

73. Pat Robertson sued Pete McCloskey for $35-million in a libel suit in 1986, thinking....

McCloskey would back down and retract his statements.

WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

McCloskey spent a boatload of his own money preparing to go to trial, and Boy Howdy, the trial lawyer was ready!


Pat Robertson was running for president in 1988, and very inconveniently, the trial date was set for Super Tuesday.


Robertson quietly dropped the case before it came to trial and paid McCloskey's court costs.

[Bev54]

30. He still thinks we should all just move on

Screw him, time for accountability.

[Crunchy Frog]

38. I would have at one time. After his Iraq lies, no way.

[tblue37]

54. He helped cover up My Lai.

[crickets]

77. 👆 This. So many people either have forgotten or are unaware of his role in this. nt

[njhoneybadger]

5. How noble of him

[exboyfil]

6. What took you so long

I know the whole lying about Iraq thing was pretty low (especially since it looked like they set you up in your speech). You really should have told them to pound sand instead of being used that way.

You have been watching for four years. It took a failed coup to convince you the GOP was bankrupt.

[JonLP24]

7. He even endorsed Obama over McCain

He has been disgusted with the Republican Party for awhile.

[JI7]

60. Because of Palin

[JonLP24]

63. He made the endorsement

After that woman asked McCain if Obama was an Arab. Powell's response was "so what if he was" and he relayed a story of visiting a gravesite of a Muslim-American soldier.

I think the bigotry in the Republican Party turned him off a long time ago.

[Yeehah]

8. If he confesses the lies he told to justify the invasion of Iraq

I might gain a shred of respect for him.

[essme]

14. Same.

He can't hide the shame of that moment when he claimed he had "yellow" whatever it was. How embarrassing for him and his wife.

[exboyfil]

20. Even if it had been true

Afghanistan and getting Bin Laden had to be the first goal. Our focus should have been on that. Some might even think that Bin Laden was used as a cat's paw, but that would be unprincipled and a Republican would never do that.

[Yeehah]

37. Precisely!

The enemy was in Afghanistan and we allowed him to escape. My former battalion in 10th Mountain was climbing the canyons in Tora Bora chasing Bin Laden and his gang. I was like...."when is the rest of the US military going to show up to support and block the other end of the canyon?" I will never forget when GW AWOL Bush said on TV, "we are counting on our Pakistani allies to capture any enemy escaping across the border."

Of course, the corrupt Bush regime had the bulk of the military on stand-by to invade the wrong country. I've really never been so pissed off in my life.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

9. Hope he doesn't become a Democrat.

[Boomerproud]

11. So what?

[Grasswire2]

12. !!

Good news. I'll take it. Sort out grievances with his past later.

This gives permission for Center Right to follow him.

[DURHAM D]

13. ,

[The Genealogist]

17. I had to stop and listen to this.

I love this song!

[DURHAM D]

28. "Too much, too little, too late"

was my first thought.

btw - Just checked wiki and Johnny is still alive He is 85, So is Deniece - 69.

[The Genealogist]

32. My mother had several of Johnny Mathis' records, and I have them now.

I love his music. Today would have been Mom's 86th birthday, so it is apt for me to hear a Johnny Mathis song today.

[DURHAM D]

35. Sweet thoughts for your Mom.

btw - I had several Johnny Mathis LPs. However, my nephew went through my collection and took them all. I gave him permission.

[The Genealogist]

39. I hope he enjoys them.

So many classic songs.

[Yeehah]

42. OMG that is so great!

Two amazing singers!

[Demovictory9]

58. I confuse her with Minnie Ripperton... great song

[Blues Heron]

15. Why is this war ciminal running free?

so much death and misery on his hands for holding up that sham prop.

[mvd]

31. I can't get past that either

I am glad he left the Repuke Party, but until he apologizes for the Iraq war enabling, I will have no respect.

[Irish_Dem]

80. He is responsible for so much death and destruction.

The US never really recovered from that debacle. And it shouldn't.

Bagdad, 50% women and children, was carpet bombed with depleted uranium.
Damage will go on for decades.

[milestogo]

19. So does he expect a medal for that?

[Grasswire2]

21. I spent two hours with Colin Powell in his office in the Pentagon.

Just me, my photographer, his communications officer, and him.

At base, he is someone who can lead many Republicans out of the Trump wilderness of chaos.

And that's what is useful about this. He's not a wingnut. Give those center-right Republicans a path away from Trump.

[TheRickles]

44. Exactly! As much as we on DU dislike him, this action will get a lot of attention from centrist R's

[struggle4progress]

22. Powell says Trump should resign

... "I wish he would just do what Nixon did, and that's step down" ...

"Somebody oughta go up there and tell him it's over," Powell said about Trump. "The plane's waiting for you, you're out. That way he would not only step down, he would in addition sort of cut the guts out from underneath this group of people who he has working for him" ...

https://www.today.com/news/trump-should-resign-nixon-colin-powell-says-today-t205335

[Roland99]

23. Took him THIS long??

[FakeNoose]

48. He's been a RINO for a long time

Republican In Name Only

I expected Powell to switch parties when he supported Obama. I'm not sure why he didn't.

[Girard442]

24. You can come in Colin, but we got no VIP positions. Grab a shovel.

We'd like to see if you're sincere enough to shovel shit for a while.

[msongs]

25. good, now he can spend his full time searching for the WMDs nt

[choie]

26. what the fuck took you so long?

What a patriot.

[2naSalit]

27. Oh. That's nice.

Like it matters now with that huge wad of political he holds these days.

[stopdiggin]

29. makes a nice chyron

Stopped caring about the man's opinions or politics a good ways back.
(but still welcome. perhaps it will influence more.)

[stillcool]

33. well said

so hard to imagine, but there's got to be a way out. They've effed things up so much, for so long, and with the aid of some Democrats. We need a reset button.

[lindysalsagal]

34. Well, duh.

[UTUSN]

36. Why was he ever there? Was it just a career path catering to Old White Men? My Lai?

To be clear, not saying he was *at* My Lai during the event.

********QUOTE*******

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/colin-powells-vietnam-fog/

Colin Powell’s Vietnam Fog
The war was years ago, but that does not excuse misrepresenting one's participation in it.
By David Corn

.... Powell has never been implicated in any of the wrongdoing involving My Lai. No evidence ties him to the attempted cover-up. But he was part of an institution (and a division) that tried hard to keep the story of My Lai hidden–a point unacknowledged in his autobiography. Moreover, several months before he was interviewed by Sheehan, Powell was ordered to look into allegations made by another former GI that US troops had "without provocation or justification" killed civilians. (These charges did not mention My Lai specifically.) Powell mounted a most cursory examination. He did not ask the accuser for more specific information. He interviewed a few officers and reported to his superiors that there was nothing to the allegations [see "Questions for Powell," The Nation, January 8/15, 2001]. This exercise is not mentioned in his memoirs. ....

********UNQUOTE******

[OMGWTF]

40. Kinda slow to do that aren't you Colin? GWB asked you to lie us into a war and you did.

You're a traitor.

[pat_k]

41. About friggin' time.

[GoldenMezzoDiva]

43. Well, better late...

than never!













than NEVER!

[RandySF]

45. I thought he already left.

[liberalla]

46. What's the hurry Colin ? ? ?

[Mosby]

49. Video

Link to tweet

[scarletwoman]

50. Took him long enough. I'm not impressed.

[Paladin]

51. Gripe all you want about how long it took.

This helps our side.

[wishstar]

55. Since he endorsed Pres. Obama, Hillary Clinton and Biden I thought he already left Repubs

[ecstatic]

79. Lol! nt

[Dukkha]

56. Did he take his vial of anthrax with him?

n/t

[Rebl2]

59. Thought he

did that a few years ago. Guess not and what took him so long.

[samsingh]

61. hiding a massacre in Viet Nam, lying for bush to start a war with iraq were not enough

trump was.

good for Powell - very late - but at least he has a line.

[cstanleytech]

64. Not impressed. Why? Well to honest the writing was on the wall for decades that the Republican party

was on this path of destruction so anyone that remained in it shares in the blame and shame of it.

[pamdb]

65. colin powell

What took him so long?

[JohnnyRingo]

66. There have to be many more who are not famous.

We know the people at the riot and your crazy uncle will deepen their roots, but I believe we've entered a new chapter in American history, and many will no longer want to associate themselves with republicans.

[CaptainTruth]

68. It's still a shame how the PNAC used him to sell their WMD lies.

Powell wasn't part of the PNAC, he didn't work on Iraq invasion planning in 1997, he didn't write that he needed a "new Pearl Harbor" that could be used as an excuse to start invading & overthrowing countries in the Middle East (& then ignore warnings that 9/11 was coming... so they could get their new Pearl Harbor), he didn't do any of the other awful things the PNAC did. He wasn't part of the group.

The PNAC lied to him just like they lied to the rest of the world, he believed them, & he did his job based on what he believed to be true. They needed a credible, trusted person to sell their lies to the world, & they chose Powell. They lied to him & used him.

If you want to blame someone for the disaster of the Iraq war, put the blame where it rightfully belongs, on the PNAC members who filled the GW Bush administration, including Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, John Bolton, & the others who planned & pushed their agenda of "global hegemony."

I spent years researching this, & I even created a website that I maintained during the GW Bush administration where I wrote about it & tried to get ANYONE in the media interested in what was happening. No one in MSM cared. To this day I feel like their failure to report on who the PNAC was & what their agenda was is one of the greatest failures of our media. And, I could easily write a book on it. If only I were independently wealthy & didn't have to work for a living...

I'll never forget the day I came home from work & saw a headline on the newspaper that said something like "Spy Found in the White House." I literally LOLd, tossed the paper on the table, & without reading a word of the article told my wife at the time (now ex-wife) that it wasn't a spy at all. I told her the person's ("spy's&quot name, what office they worked in, what information they were sharing, who they were sharing it with, & why. I even had copies of some of the information being shared, obtained through my sources, which were verified years later when they became public as a result of the 9/11 Commission investigation. Then I watched the media spend 2-3 weeks thrashing about trying to figure it out, & in the end I was 100% right. Why was I right? Because I freaking paid attention & I knew that same person (the "spy&quot had been sharing that same information with the same other person as part of the PNAC effort for years before Bush was appointed POTUS by SCOTUS, & I noticed that Bush created a special office & put that person in charge of it. I mean, WTF do you think he was doing??? Exchanging cookie recipes???? Fk no. He continued doing exactly what he had been doing back in his PNAC days, that's why a "special" office was created for him.

I knew all of this, & a hell of a lot more, & I was just an average guy who spent an above-average amount of time paying attention to our government & digging for information. There are no words to convey how I feel about the colossal failure of our media to report this to every American. There is no excuse for it. I had the time to do the research & work my contacts/networks & gather all this information & it wasn't even my job. I did it on weekends & evenings because I cared, I gave a damn. Journalists get paid to do this, yet (at the time, anyway) none of them were interested in doing it.

I should probably add:

/Rant Off

Thank you for attending my TED talk.

[McKim]

70. It's Too Late Baby.....

It's too late! To be respected he should have left the party at his UN speech encouraging the War on Iraq instead of giving that disgusting speech! I have little respect for this man. Too little too late. He could have been a hero! But he blew it!!!

[bucolic_frolic]

71. No, the Republican Party left him. /nt

[live love laugh]

74. Pfffft

[Skittles]

75. he should have done it prior to helping them pimp for war

but, whatever

[Blue_true]

76. Why did he take so long? Should have left years ago. nt

[Blue Owl]

78. Someone bake him a yellow cake