Powell: UN Speech a ‘Lasting Blot’
It’s some measure of how truly awful a president George Bush is that I’m giving serious thought these days to announcing pre-emptive support for virtually anyone, even a Republican, as a replacement for him, as long as the replacement manifests a degree of intelligence and competence. Rudy Giuliani? Probably. John McCain? Eww, that’s a hard one. Ask me later.
Colin Powell?
The answer used to be, “Sure. In a heartbeat.” Then came his long, slow transformation at the hands of the Bush public relations machine. When he joined the Bush White House, Powell had built up a store of credibility and respect during long years of honest public service. Then the Bush team spent the next four years using him like a sponge, squeezing out a little of his credibility in support of one lie over here, another over there, until, when there was nothing left to squeeze, they cast him aside.
Anyway, I found the following interesting: Powell calls his U.N. speech a lasting blot on his record.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 8 – The former secretary of state, Colin L. Powell, says in a television interview to be broadcast Friday that his 2003 speech to the United Nations, in which he gave a detailed description of Iraqi weapons programs that turned out not to exist, was “painful” for him personally and would be a permanent “blot” on his record.
“I’m the one who presented it on behalf of the United States to the world,” Mr. Powell told Barbara Walters of ABC News, adding that the presentation “will always be a part of my record.”
Asked by Ms. Walters how painful this was for him, Mr. Powell replied: “It was painful. It’s painful now.”
Yeah, well, it still pains some of us, too.
