May 25 (Bloomberg) -- Former Secretary of State Colin Powell challenged former Vice President Dick Cheney and talk show host Rush Limbaugh over the future of the Republican Party, saying it must be more inclusive or “watch the world go by.”
“If we don’t reach out more, the party is going to be sitting on a very, very narrow base,” Powell said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” program yesterday. “You can only do two things with a base. You can sit on it and watch the world go by, or you can build the base.”
Powell was responding to Cheney’s assertion two weeks earlier that Powell had abandoned the party when he endorsed President Barack Obama in last year’s election. The former vice president said radio commentator Limbaugh is a better Republican than Powell.
“If I had to choose in terms of being a Republican, I’d go with Rush Limbaugh,” Cheney said on May 10. “My take on it was Colin had already left the party. I didn’t know he was still a Republican.”
Limbaugh, speaking on his radio program on May 6, urged Powell to become a Democrat.
“Rush Limbaugh will not get his wish and Mr. Cheney is ill-informed,” Powell, a retired Army general, said on CBS. “I’m still a Republican.”
Powell, 72, is wading into a debate about where the Republican Party is headed after November elections, when Obama won the White House and Democrats expanded their majorities in the House and Senate. Powell argued that Republicans should be “more inclusive” to attract more voters.
Republican Losses
“On almost every demographic indicator the Republican Party is losing,” Powell said. “The Republican Party has to take a hard look at itself and ask, ‘What kind of party are we?’”
Powell said Limbaugh holds too much sway over Republican officials, citing recent incidents in which Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele was forced to “lay prostrate on the floor and apologize” for criticizing the radio personality.
“He shouldn’t have a veto over what someone thinks,” Powell said.
Limbaugh, whose talk show is heard on more than 600 radio stations, has been targeting Republicans in addition to his traditional Democratic opponents since conservatives suffered reverses last November. Limbaugh suggested in March that Steele commit suicide for presiding over Republican losses.
Newt Gingrich, former Republican speaker of the House, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program that his party has to make itself open enough to include both Cheney and Powell.
Purging the Party
“Republicans are going to be very foolish if they run around deciding they’re going to see how much they can purge us down to the smallest possible base,” Gingrich said.
Former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge, who served from 2003 to 2005 under President George W. Bush, agreed.
Limbaugh and other commentators who “get the base all fired up” are sometimes too divisive, Ridge said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“Let’s be less shrill,” said Ridge, a Republican and former Pennsylvania governor. “Let’s not attack other individuals. Let’s attack their ideas.”
Limbaugh, 58, has criticized Powell’s endorsement of Obama, saying, “The only reason to endorse Obama is race.”
Powell said Limbaugh ignored his reasons for supporting Obama. Powell had called Obama “a transformational figure” from “a new generation coming onto the world stage,” in a televised interview on Oct. 19.
‘Very Unfortunate’
“Mr. Limbaugh saw fit to dismiss all those reasons and put it into a racial context,” Powell said yesterday. “That was very unfortunate.”
Powell yesterday sided with Obama in his debate with Cheney over the closing of the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
“I’ve felt it should be closed for the past six years,” Powell said. “Guantanamo has caused us a great deal of trouble throughout the world.”
He also said Obama “didn’t handle it very well” by asking Congress for $80 million to close the camp without having a detailed plan for how to handle the approximately 240 detainees that remain incarcerated there. The Senate last week rejected Obama’s request in a 90-6 vote.
Dueling Speeches
Obama and Cheney made back-to-back speeches on May 21 in which they debated the national security policies espoused by the Bush administration and repudiated by Obama.
Obama said the U.S. “went off course” during the previous administration and that Guantanamo is “quite simply a mess.” Bringing Guantanamo inmates to the U.S. may risk U.S. security, Cheney said.
Powell said U.S. prisons are capable of holding any detainees, and that it is important to bring them into the U.S. legal system. He said he had told Obama the same thing.
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