What Happened To The Original Colin Powell?

Anyone remember Colin Powell?

No, not the guy shilling for Bush. I'm talking about the original Colin Powell. The one most of us used to respect.

Remember the guy who used to work for Reagan, then wouldn't tell us what party he belonged to, and thought about running for President? He would have forced the Democrats to actually work for the Black vote (wouldn't that be a step in the right direction?) Remember the day he held the press conference to announce that he wasn't going to run, and CNN carried it live?

It was as if he mattered.

And then he stopped mattering.

He was scheduled to be on Meet the Press last Sunday. I didn't even bother to set the alarm. I slept through it.

Some say Condoleeza Rice marginalized him, but I don't think she had (or has) anything to do with it.

I think it started when he became willing to lie.

Sometime back in March of 2004, he was talking to the BBC about the possibility of torture at Guantanamo Bay. Perhaps you remember this quote:

"We have watched Guantanamo Bay very carefully knowing of the interest of a number of nations, including the United Kingdom, and knowing that we have responsibilities under the Geneva Convention and BECAUSE WE ARE AMERICANS, WE DON'T ABUSE PEOPLE WHO ARE IN OUR CARE." (Emphasis mine.)

Willing to take his word on this one now since Abu Ghraib?

How 'bout his speech to the United Nations on weapons of mass destruction?

Or his daily "We are winning the war on terror" statements?

I used to be a Democratic Committeeman, but there was a time when I would have changed my voter registration to Republican to go to the wall for Colin Powell. That time has long passed. I'm not even willing to watch Colin Powell on television nowadays, because I do not want to listen to him lie to me anymore.