WaPo Plays Up Colin Powell Smacking 'Right-Wing Critics' on CBS Sunday

It’s uncommon for newspapers to hype Sunday morning TV interviews in advance, especially if presidents aren’t involved. But Saturday’s Washington Post carries this page 3 story: "In TV Appearance, Powell Plans to Answer Right-Wing Critics." Reporters Michael D. Shear and Perry Bacon Jr. play up a GOP feud: "Under intense fire from the right, former secretary of state Colin L. Powell is preparing to answer his Republican critics this weekend in a television appearance that is likely to add fuel to his long-standing feud with top conservatives in his party."

Message to liberal Post readers: the conservatives are going to get thrashed tomorrow on CBS's Face the Nation, so don’t miss it.

Shear and Bacon didn't tell readers that this "feud" was fueled by the liberal media, by CBS Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer, who asked former vice president Dick Cheney whether Powell or Rush Limbaugh was a better voice for Republicans. They only explained "Rush Limbaugh and former vice president Richard B. Cheney have attacked Powell in recent days as a traitor to his party."

If a Democrat served his president as Secretary of State, and then in the next election, endorsed the Republican, would the Post find it odd he'd be seen as a "traitor to his party?"

Would CBS or Schieffer even think to ask a Democrat whether Keith Olbermann or Joe Lieberman was a better voice for Democrats, and then lovingly cover the sparks that flew?

Shear and Bacon quoted Limbaugh saying Powell should just "close the loop and become a Democrat," and then balanced that with conservative Rep. Mark Souder and Sen. John Thune trying to make a case that Powell should remain a Republican.

They also quoted Powell suggesting "what Rush does as an entertainer diminishes the party and intrudes or inserts into our public life a kind of nastiness that we would be better to do without."

Left unsaid: how Powell, the opponent of "nastiness" in public life, defends his deputy Richard Armitage causing years of Washington nastiness by dishing the name of CIA agent-turned-millionaire book-and-movie deal beneficiary Valerie Plame and then failing to take any blame for it.

While Shear and Bacon noted Powell's remarks on the GOP future to "corporate security executives," they failed to note the speeches were for large fees, and failed to wonder if Powell’s claims in recent speeches to have the answers for Republicans are part of a gambit to increase his speaking fees.

The Post noted Cheney cracked that he didn't know Powell was still a Republican, but added the Powell still claimed party membership while granting an interview to radical-left MSNBC host Rachel Maddow in April.

Has anyone heard Powell chide Maddow for adding "nastiness" to public life?

[Image: Beau Bo D'or]