THE MOST POPULAR MEMBER OF THIS BUSH ADMINISTRATION’S CABINET has tendered his resignation.
Powell’s memoirs are going to fetch a mint for him, and Democrats ought to see if there is any way at all that this guy might switch parties.
Colin Powell does not have a string of acolytes following him and doesn’t seem to have a coherent view on foreign policy — but he is the guy in the room who always thinks cautiously, who focuses on the contingency at hand, who believes in speaking softly and carrying a very big stick. While realists and neoconservatives will probably continue to fight it out in the Bush administration, the one thing they really need is a Powell-type cautious general who had his own political muscle to beat back some of Bush’s worst impulses.
Powell’s record is not completely clean — and I wish he had resigned as soon as he learned how profound and deep the administration’s lies to Powell and the country had been.
But Colin Powell kept this administration out of what could have been an even worse mess.
On the one hand, I’m sorry he won’t be in the situation room as a sane and steady voice.
On the other, I hope he shares what he knows about the nuts and bolts of this first term with Bush with the rest of us — and I hope he runs for the presidency.
— Steve Clemons
