Martin made the comment during a panel discussion with Brown, CNN senior political analyst Gloria Borger, and Kevin Madden, the former spokesman for the Mitt Romney presidential campaign, in which the four of them discussed the Powell endorsement of Obama. After his cliched attack, the CNN contributor accused Limbaugh, as well as Pat Buchanan and George Will, of disregarding Powell’s record and simplifying his endorsement to a matter of skin color: "Colin Powell gave one of the most thoughtful, meticulous endorsements of any candidate, and laid it all out very methodically, and it is an insult for people like Rush Limbaugh and Buchanan and Will and others to somehow say, oh, it's only because he's black."
The transcript of the relevant portion of the panel discussion, which aired 18 minutes into the 8 pm Eastern hour of Monday’s Election Center program:
CAMPBELL BROWN: Roland, Rush Limbaugh said today, this is about race. That's all it's about.
ROLAND MARTIN: I think I will quote Al Franken when talking about Rush Limbaugh -- is a stupid, fat idiot. Here's the problem, Campbell, that I have with this -- people like Rush Limbaugh and Pat Buchanan and George Will -- they have praised Colin Powell over all these years for being race-neutral, for being somebody who they can look to differently than other African-Americans. They have embraced him. Now, all of a sudden, they have thrown out the fact that he was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, thrown out the fact that he's a general, a four-star general -- thrown out National Security Adviser, Secretary of State. All of sudden, oh, no, because he's black. Colin Powell gave one of the most thoughtful, meticulous endorsements of any candidate, and laid it all out very methodically, and it is an insult for people like Rush Limbaugh and Buchanan and Will and others to somehow say, oh, it's only because he's black. No -- this guy has observed four U.S. presidents up close. I think he has a much better idea of who can occupy the Oval Office than Rush Limbaugh ever could.
