WASHINGTON — Former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell warned Sunday that ideological conservatives, particularly radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, had gained a hold over the Republican Party that risked driving the GOP into an extended exile from power.
Powell cast his warnings in unusually personal terms as he answered recent charges from two champions of the Republican right -- Limbaugh and former Vice President Dick Cheney -- that he was no longer a Republican.
"Rush will not get his wish, and Mr. Cheney was misinformed," said Powell, whose resume includes military advisor to President Reagan, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George H.W. Bush, and secretary of State under George W. Bush. "I am still a Republican."
Powell, a moderate who has been featured prominently over the years by GOP candidates trying to broaden their appeal, repeatedly clashed with Cheney during the George W. Bush administration. He bristled at critics' charge that he had left the party.
"Neither [Cheney] nor Rush Limbaugh are members of the membership committee of the Republican Party," Powell said. "I get to make my decision on that."
Powell's public retort adds to the often acrimonious conflict between Republican moderates and conservatives that has left some centrists feeling alienated.
Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter, for example, became a Democrat last month after 28 years as a Republican senator. He cited GOP hostility to his vote in favor of President Obama's economic stimulus package, among other things. Maine's two moderate GOP senators -- Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe -- also have expressed misgivings about the atmosphere in the party.
Nor was Powell the only Republican moderate to caution the party Sunday. Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge said on CNN's "State of the Union" that if the GOP wanted "to restore itself, not as a regional party but as a national party, we have to be far less judgmental about disagreements within the party."
Ridge, who served as secretary of Homeland Security under George W. Bush, reportedly was among those passed over as running mate to GOP presidential nominee John McCain last year because McCain didn't want to alienate conservatives.
Powell reflected moderates' angst in an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation," criticizing "diktats that come down from the right wing of the party."
