As President Obama has stuck to the timeline for ending the Iraq War this year, Republican leaders have voiced as a chief complaint that the war has somehow not been long enough and that America should leave tens of thousands of troops in place.
Last night on the show, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff for Secretary of State Colin Powell, talked about what’s going on in his own Republican Party.
WILKERSON: The only way I can explain it, Rachel, is their hatred of President Obama. And I say that with some circumspection.
They want to defeat this man. They want to bring this man out of the White House. They want to embarrass this man. They want to put this man through every kind of turmoil they can possibly put him through politically.
So, they will take almost any stand even — and this is what really grates on me as a Republican — even if it is not in the interest of this country, they will take a stand and have repeatedly taken stands that oppose the president simply because they oppose the president.
It’s not America. It`s not the United States. It’s not our best interests. It’s certainly not our national security interests. It’s getting rid of this president.
That is political opportunism and political blindness of the first order. And it may cause me to leave this party eventually, I must say that.
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MADDOW: Is there — do you see any hope within the Republican Party for a new vision, a conservative realistic not reactionary foreign policy emerging? Is anybody leading on that?
WILKERSON: I see Ron Paul. I see Walt Jones from North Carolina. I see a few others who speak sanely and soberly.
But as far as the leadership goes, whether it’s domestic policy, tax reform, taxing the wealthiest in this country, which incidentally Dwight Eisenhower did for eight years at the rate of 90 percent, an arch-Republican, if you will. Any issue you want to pick, my Republicans seem to be intent on suicide.
No wonder Colonel Wilkerson trended on Twitter last night. Screengrab’s after the jump.
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