Powell the Disappointer

Continuing his slide into disgrace and eventual irrelevance by chipping away at his own backbone out both sides of his mouth, Colin Powell has decided to come out as both sort of for and sort of against the administration’s secret spy program. Or, perhaps more accurately, clever enough to acknowledge it wasn’t lawful, but hackish enough to defend the administration, anyway.

"My own judgment is that it didn't seem to me, anyway, that it would have been that hard to go get the warrants," Mr. Powell said. "And even in the case of an emergency, you go and do it. The law provides for that."

But Mr. Powell added that "for reasons that the president has discussed and the attorney general has spoken to, they chose not to do it that way."

"I see absolutely nothing wrong with the president authorizing these kinds of actions," he said.

Asked if such eavesdropping should continue, Mr. Powell said, "Yes, of course it should continue."

Mr. Shakes—bring me a neck brace, stat! I’ve suddenly got a nasty case of whiplash.

Powell also noted he had not been told of the program while he was serving as Bush’s Secretary of State, which is, of course, no surprise at all, considering that Powell was never part of that particular in-club. The only thing that I find surprising is his insistence on remaining even remotely loyal to the Bushies. I’ll never understand why an honorable man who dedicated his life to serving this country would compromise both his own personal integrity and the fate of the nation by becoming a useless hack for this particular collection of bandits.