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The purge of moderate Republicans continued today as talk show host Rush Limbaugh called for Colin Powell to leave the Republican Party and become a Democrat, after Powell had the nerve to insult Rush Limbaugh by saying that Rush inserts nastiness that the Republican Party can do without.

Here is the video from Media Matters:

Originally, Powell blasted Limbaugh,”I think 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.”

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Criticizing Rush Limbaugh means immediate dismissal from the Republican Party, at least in the mind of Rush Limbaugh, “Powell is out there saying I am killing the Republican Party while he endorsed and voted for Obama. … He’s just mad at me because I’m the one person in the country who had the guts to explain his endorsement of Obama. It was purely and solely based on race! There can be no other explanation for it. What Colin Powell needs to do is close the loop and become a Democrat instead of claiming to be a Republican interested in reforming the Republican Party.”

Powell should leave the Republican Party, as should every Republican with a moderate bone in their body. The Grand Old Party has become a gathering of the right wing fringe. Other elected Republicans may in cower in fear of Limbaugh, but Colin Powell doesn’t.

Notice that Limbaugh doesn’t have much on Powell except that he supported Obama. Rush can keep his head in the sand and ignore the fact that Powell gave a comprehensive account of why he supported Obama last fall on Meet the Press.

People like Rush Limbaugh don’t want to admit that the Republican Party is in big trouble. Gen. Powell is correct in saying that sometimes people are willing to pay more taxes to get the services that they want. If this is true, the Republican Party is doomed because they have based their whole ideology on the notion that every tax is a bad tax.

Moderate Republicans like Powell are an endangered species, and what Rush Limbaugh is saying is that there is no place in my Republican Party for you. If this is the case, then there is probably no place for millions of other moderate Republicans either. These voters will continue to move towards the Democratic Party as long as radical Republicans have no interest in them. This is why Democrats are going to continue to win elections for the next few years, at least.