Powell Planning To Answer His Right-Wing Critics In TV Appearance This Weekend

Sen. John Thune (S.D.), a member of the GOP leadership in the Senate, said Powell is "one of the greatest leaders of our generation, and he is at heart a Republican."

Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, May 23, 2009
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.
The appearance will come just days after Powell, one of the country's leading black political figures, told an audience in Boston that a new Republican Party is "waiting to emerge." Earlier this month, he said the party is in "deep trouble" because "Americans are looking for more government in their life, not less."
Powell's current battle with the right flank of the GOP is a continuation of a war that began in November 1995, when he announced that he would not be a candidate in the 1996 presidential race. With an apparent eye on 2000, he said he would change his lifelong political registration from independent to Republican and begin a quest to move the party toward what he considered its natural home in the center LinkHere