Last Wednesday, October 19, was the day that Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, the former chief of staff to Colin Powell at the State Department, decided he couldn't take it anymore. In a lunchtime talk to the New America Foundation moderated by Steve Clemons, Wilkerson ripped into the Bush administration “cabal” that was guilty of “aberrations, bastardizations, perturbations” in a decision-making process that shocked him.
Then, a few days later, Jeffrey Goldberg's New Yorker profile of Brent Scowcroft hit the news cycle right between the eyes. Scowcroft, like Wilkerson, was known already to be an opponent of the neocon way of doing things. But neither had ever spoken for the record as they did last week, and the cumulative effect was nuclear.
But it occurs to me that there are still others who need to speak out -- which takes us back to October 19. The same day that Wilkerson was blasting away at the administration in Washington, far away in upstate New York, the man whose staff Wilkerson chiefed, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, was delivering a speech on the current world situation to a gathering at the University of Buffalo. Surveying the landscape from Europe to China to the rest of Asia, Powell concluded: “We're not doing bad at all.”
Has anyone in this town embarrassed himself in the last five years more than Powell? At least George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld believe this toxic gimcrackery they've been peddling to us. Powell never believed it, and he still peddled it. There's a word for that, and it isn't “honor.”
Powell needs to follow Wilkerson and Brent Scowcroft and come clean.
I know he won't; Wilkerson acknowledged at the New America lunch that Powell was upset with him for speaking out. But if Powell has any sense, he'd spill whatever beans he's got, and soon.
Undoubtedly, wherever Powell goes, he is accorded respect. People line up to shake his hand, tell him how thrilled they are to meet him, thank him for his service to the country. Schools and VA hospital wings and such will be named after him (as they should be -- he has made history); attendees will scramble to have their pictures taken with him. And then, once he's left the room, the liberals will whisper “whore” and the conservatives will whisper “wimp.”
Powell is finished as a person of influence. Totally finished. Am I exaggerating? Look at the way the Associated Press reported his Buffalo visit. In a 13-paragraph dispatch, five were devoted to slagging Powell through the voices of the people protesting outside. (Four of the eight positive paragraphs were one-sentence quotes.) Maybe the protestors were loony left and maybe they weren't, but the point is the amount of play the AP writer gave them: O.J. does better than that with wire services.
OK, the AP report is a small example, but think about it: Whether you're liberal or conservative, when is the last time you heard anyone in your circle speak of Powell in reverential tones? In Washington, and I reckon a lot of other places, it just doesn't happen.
If I were at Hill & Knowlton and Powell came to me, I'd put it simply: “Buddy, drop the loyal-soldier thing. It's past the point of diminishing returns. America knows you're defending a bunch of people who a) you don't really agree with, and b) gave you a royal screwing every chance they could. They've played you, and the country knows it.
“Loyalty was good, post-September 11. But now we're post-post-September 11. People want truth today. Wilkerson and Scowcroft set the table for you. What are you worried about -- your reputation in GOP circles? You're cooked there anyway. The conservatives haven't forgotten your defense of affirmative action at the 2000 convention. And as for the war, they all think you leaked and submarined the boss. Look at the Fitzgerald investigation; these people are going down. Don't stay on a sinking ship. Going public is the only way to get your reputation back. You have nothing to lose -- and a mint to make on your memoir.”
I know; Powell won't do it. But we may be hearing from him whether he likes it or not. Remember the famous “S” memo that was circulated on Air Force One during the Africa trip? It was generated in the State Department. Powell surely read it -- and he surely knows several things about the White House crusade against Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame, and about ginned-up case for war in general. If Patrick Fitzgerald's probe spreads wide enough, Powell may be breaking ranks not at the New America Foundation or in The New Yorker. He may be doing it in a deposition.
Michael Tomasky is the executive editor of The American Prospect.
