If The GOP Has A Soul, There's A Big Battle For It Right Now

Yesterday, and again this morning, former Pennsylvania Republican Governor Tom Ridge pushed back against the extremists who have captured the Republican Party. His special target: Pig Man. Bush's former Secretary of Homeland Security, was a guest on John King's CNN show where he chastised Limbaugh for his "shrill" vicious attacks on people instead of ideas. He's concerned that the GOP needs to restore itself as a national party and that the way Limbaugh is going about it is counterproductive.

Rush Limbaugh has an audience of 20 million people. A lot of people listen daily to him and live by every word. But words mean things and how you use words is very important... 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 yourself but let's respect others opinions and let's not be divisive."

This morning a much larger audience watched one of the last nationally popular Republican leaders, Colin Powell, who has been harshly criticized by the far right, try to move his party back towards the mainstream, pointing out that Limbaugh is nothing more than a well-paid entertainer who has used his own contemptible racism as a tool to attack his (Powell's) ideas. It was a very powerful appearance and I suggest you give it a listen if you missed it:



Powell didn't mention that Limbaugh and Cheney were both selfish and hypocritical draft-dodgers and phonies-- but he got the point across pretty well. He did mention that “Rush will not get his wish, and Mr. Cheney was misinformed; I’m still a Republican.”

Powell, the retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who identified himself as a Republican only after leaving the military, said he felt that the Republican Party should be more inclusive than it has been. Noting the party’s substantial losses in last fall’s elections, he said: “You can only do two things with a base. You can sit on it and watch the world go by, or you can build on it.

“In almost every demographic indicator, the Republican Party is losing. North, South, East, West. Men, women, whites, blacks, Hispanics.” “Are we simply moving further to the right,” Mr. Powell asked, “and by so doing opening up the right-of-center and the center to be taken over by independents and to be taken over by Democrats?”