Falling on His Sword
Colin Powell's most significant moment turned out to be his lowest
Sunday, October 1, 2006; W12

ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2004, eight days after the president he
served was elected to a second term, Secretary of State Colin Powell
received a telephone call from the White House at his State Department
office. The caller was not President Bush but Chief of Staff Andrew
Card, and he got right to the point.

"The president would like to make a change," Card said, using a
time-honored formulation that avoided the words "resign" or "fire." He
noted briskly that there had been some discussion of having Powell
remain until after Iraqi elections scheduled for the end of January,
but that the president had decided to take care of all Cabinet changes
sooner rather than later. Bush wanted Powell's resignation letter
dated two days hence, on Friday, November 12, Card said, although the
White House expected him to stay at the State Department until his
successor was confirmed by the Senate.

Gen (Sec) Powell is one of the finest Americans who has ever lived. He
would make the greatest President as well were he to run.

However he is also smart enough to not go for it and rather live out the
rest of his days as the greatest American Hero of our Time!

A truly GREAT man comes along only once in a generation and he is ours.

"JOE" not.com> wrote in message
news:gvrth2ptk3sitrfif3ghc1cptiaai9k5n9@4ax.com...

JOE wrote:

Good article. It seems to me, Powell decided or couldn't help to fall on
his sword. He just wanted to make sure that the sword was not laced
poison. Does it make any difference? It was poisoned. It just made his
political death faster and probably less drown out and painful.

I enthusiastically agree that General Powell is the finest of Americans,
among our most brilliant military and political leaders, and one of the
few U.S. "politicians" to have earned widespread respect internationally
from friends and foes alike.

In the last two elections, this nation's political parties were unable
to produce a candidate that people could vote FOR. Instead, most of us
at the polls had to decide which of two fools would do the least damage.

Next year, if it begins looking like the political machines are about to
churn out two more losers, I wonder if Powell would rise to the
occasion. Would he set aside his quiet retirement and wade into the fray?

A few months ago, after more than my share of a pretty good bottle of
wine, I wondered what would happen if both parties tried to nominate
him. Like Ronald Reagan at one point in his political life, General
Powell is sorta right and sorta left, sorta Republican and sorta
Democrat, but he's 100%% electable.

I hereby reserve my seat on the POWELL FOR PRESIDENT bus.

Ike

JOE wrote: