Rush Limbaugh, Republican Leaders Attack Colin Powell for Being a Racist

The news today that retired general and former Secretary of State Colin Powell had endorsed Barack Obama must have sent shivers up the spine of John McCain’s beleaguered campaign manager Rick Davis, who has crafted a two-week assault on Obama’s character and patriotism in the remaining days of the 2008 presidential election.

“Senator Obama has demonstrated the kind of calm, patient, intellectual, steady approach to problem-solving that I think we need in this country,” said Powell, one of the most respected figures in recent U.S. history, and certainly in the Republican Party. “His election would electrify the world.”

“I come to the conclusion that because of Obama’s ability to inspire,” Powell added, “because of the inclusive nature of his campaign, because he is reaching out all across America, because of who he is and his rhetorical abilities–and you have to take that into account –as well as his substance–he has both style and substance. He has met the standard of being a successful president, being an exceptional president.”

He also called Obama “a transformational figure.”

Transformational. The word has a certain bipartisan gravitas coming from the likes of Powell, who served with distinction in the Republican administrations of Ronald Reagan and both Bushes.

But Powell’s endorsement of Obama has apparently driven conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh apoplectic, if not downright over the edge.

Almost immediately, the bombastic Limbaugh fired off an email that bristled with an overt racism. “Secretary Powell says his endorsement is not about race,” Limbaugh wrote. “OK, fine. I am now researching his past endorsements to see if I can find all the inexperienced, very liberal, white candidates he has endorsed. I’ll let you know what I come up with.”

Say what? In fact, Powell never once mentioned race in reasons for his decision. Never came close to referencing it. The only person who brought up race in the discussion is Rush Limbaugh. But then again, truth has never been his strong suit.

In fact, only last year, Powell had sent McCain the maximum $2,300 campaign contribution–at a time when Limbaugh was still bashing the Arizona Senator. Why would Limbaugh now suggest that Powell’s endorsement had only to do with race? His reasoning is as despicable as it is disingenuous. And the underlying weltanschauung that would prompt such questioning is downright chilling.

But playing the race card wasn’t enough for Limbaugh. He also played the betrayal card, too.

“I was also unaware of [Powell’s] dislike for John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy and Antonin Scalia,” Limbaugh noted, giving voice to Republican fears of losing a majority on the Supreme Court. “I guess he also regrets Reagan and Bush making him a four-star and secretary of state and appointing his son to head the FCC. Yes, let’s hear it for transformational figures.”

Limbaugh’s wrath and bitterness apparently know no bounds. Just ask John McCain. If ever there were a disloyal figure in American politics, it is Rush Limbaugh.

In February he had this to say about McCain: “He’s just playing the American card or the patriot card, the prisoner of war story or whatever, and that happens to appeal to some people… Senator McCain successfully targeted the weak, the mushy, the squishy, the Jell-Os, some of the left, the Drive-By Media…Here’s the dirty little secret. The maverick is not a maverick… Maverick my rear end.”

He also said that McCain had no political philosophy and that he was “an opponent of conservativism.” Now that McCain has pandered to the conservative base of the Republican Party in recent months, Limbaugh is all over him like white on rice.

And Colin Powell–decorated American war hero–is a traitor.

To endorse Obama, Powell not only had to break with his party, he also had to break with McCain, a friend of 25 years, and like Powell, a decorated Vietnam War veteran. It could not have been an easy decision. But his reasoning was both tempered and well-thought out. And he expressed concerns over both the substance and tenor of the Republican campaign.

In both his prepared comments and his press conference afterwards, Powell even went so far as to question the appropriateness of the McCain-Palin camp linking Obama to ’60s radical Bill Ayers.

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