November 15, 2004

Powell resigns, more to follow... Ashcroft, Powell, and at least four other cabinet members will leave the Bush team.
posted by xammerboy 20 years ago
  • I've got two things to say about this. 1. Have you ever worked for a boss that just sucks and you're hanging on until you can get out but still keep your dignity? That's what's happening here. 2. It's a real shame Powell is leaving. He was the only one garnering international support on that team. Bush really must have drove him crazy. Sad.
  • Bush played Powell for a fool. Time and time again Powell went to the wall trying to inject some sanity and common sense into our foreign policy, and time and time again he was publicly humiliated by stronger voices within the administration, while he did his duty as a "loyal soldier". His credibility is shot, his career is most likely over. I'm only surprised that he wasn't the very first one to hand in his resignation.
  • For those who, like me, boycott the st00pid sign-up media like the Washington Post, here's what Google News has.
  • Powell has shown that he has no backbone. It was obvious that he didn't agree with the administration's foreign policy tactics, but he went along with them and defended them publicly. The honourable thing would have been to resign on the eve of the Iraq invasion. I think his political future is shot. He'll fade away, and become a guest pundit on CNN.
  • Right after 9/11, my respect for Powell just ballooned--Bush was saying the right things, everybody was putting on the best face that could be expected in such a surreally horrible situation, but for me it was POWELL who was comforting in his sincerity, his obvious competence, his intelligence, and his compassion. I had the idea that whatever he said, you could trust. He was a straight-shooter, highly principled, and someone you could count on. Since then, unfortunately, my respect for him has all but disappeared. It's sad b/c I get the feeling that he feels the most important quality a person can have is Loyalty, and he thinks he's doing what he can to live up to that. However, his loyalty is obviously misplaced and unappreciated, as others above have stated. Further, the loyalty of any politician should not be first to the people, and after that to his boss. Powell went down a slippery slope starting, probably, with the WMD thing and finally ended up a shell of his former self in my eyes. WRT his resignation: about freakin' time, says I. I only hope that now, instead of fading into security, he'll start working to see what he can do to buy back his soul and rebuild the respect he has lost.
  • security s/b "obscurity" *sigh*
  • rocket88, that's a very simplistic view. There are other possibilities. One is that he had hope that he could make changes, and wanted to do his best to make things work out well. He may have set an arbitrary deadline of the election to make a difference or leave. Alternately, he may have decided that he didn't want a political future, but he fully supports Bush, so he agreed to do whatever it was that would help out the administration, with the provision that he gets to spend time with his family once 2004 is all done with. There are several possibilities, but being a cabinet-level advisor to the President does not, to my knowledge, grant you any ability or duty to directly contradict the President. You can advise, but you cannot order or betray. No, I'm not saying that I'd want the man leading the country or anything, but I really don't know what the situation is aside from what I've seen on the news, and I suspect somehow that you don't either. Or, if you do, you're wasting a good opportunity for a nice bit of investigative reporting.
  • I'm just giving my opinion of the man, nothing more. He developed 'The Powell Doctrine' in 1990 and then repeatedly violated it over the last few years. I respect a man who is true to his own ideals much more than one who obeys the chain of command at their expense.
  • OMG, I never thought he was 67...wow, he's really well kept.
  • I actually had a (very brief) conversation with Colin Powell last summer. Even then he was seriously thinking about leaving. Only, he didn't say "leaving" he said "retiring." Now of course it's possible that he was just lying, but I got the feeling that he's not planning on a political future and doesn't give a sh*t what anyone thinks about his "early" retirement.
  • What I'm hearing down the pipe is that his wife has a worsening medical condition and he wants to spend more time with her.
  • Rocket- Powell first came to most people's attention when he was intstrumental in the Mai Lai cover-up. He's been an administration tool for a long time. (That being said, the Dems should woo him hard and fast, because a tool like that is a valuable tool indeed).
  • Powell has my utmost respect. I wish him well. If only the Republican party was like the old days, you know, pre-Reagan........
  • Powell told Woodward over a year ago that he wasn't coming back. Woodward also said that Powell was unhappy with this administration.
  • wait . . trampnews is Woodward?
  • no, petebest, trampnews is deep throat.
  • We talked about this a few weeks before the US election. Powell made a single campaign appearance (without Bush, I think) and I recall someone on MoFi saying then that he would likely quit after the election. I have a feeling the thread about it is in the exiled database, though.
  • It is traditional that all cabinet members resign at the end of a reelected President's first term to give him the opportunity to replace them without going through the embarrassment of firing them. That being said, some want to leave and some are wanted gone. Everybody resigning makes it hard to tell who is moving out and who is moving up. (Condi is rumoured to be heading up).
  • Promoting Condi would be proof of the Dilbert Principle.
  • Promoting Condi would be another slap in the face to everyone who died on 9/11. She should have been fired without delay on 9/12. That she still has her job, let alone reputation, speaks volumes about the corruption and ineptitude of this administration.
  • Revisiting TenaciousPettle's earlier remark about post 9-11 and how Bush was saying the right things... Bush immediately declared that "freedom" was attacked -- not global capitalism and imperial militarism. A friend of mine on September 12 said that this would be like the fire at the Reichstag for modern times. He proved too prophetic. Bush's immediate response set the tone for avoiding any discussion of the reasons for the attack as well as providing him with an excuse to attack other countries. Sorry to jump on such a small portion of your comment, but the idea that people think that Bush handled 9-11 so well is something that really bothers me.
  • Actually, deep throat died 5 years ago. But you never saw this post...
  • I have always had zero respect for Colin Powell. I personally believe some of the worst criminals are those who know what they're doing is wrong, but continue to do it anyway. If I was of the mind to defend Bush, I could at least say he is not very bright and has never seen war up close, so perhaps he fails to understand what he is really doing. I cant say either about Powell.
  • I agree with drjimmy.
  • I can feel the love coming from all four corners of the earth right now, baby.
  • Heh! Marvel US! The POTUS is getting desperate, inny?
  • Powell failed his country, IMHO. There comes a point when the "good soldier" trope is crap -- when "good soldier" is just empty justification.
  • I'm down with the Wing man on that one. And the My Lai thing was also unacceptable. Of course, while Colin was dealing with that, our illustrious POTUS was stuffing half of Peru up his honker and drunkenly boinking "Kitty" at Delta Chi. What? Oh like he wasn't a drunk and a cokehead frat boy! Oh, okay my apologies to Kitty.