Colin Powell has never been one to hold his tongue if he disagrees with the Republican party on something—witness his endorsement of Barack Obama in 2008, for instance. And while he's said he's not yet ready to endorse Obama this time around, he doesn't seem to be leaping at the chance to support Mitt Romney either.


Actually, this morning he spent some time calling into question Mitt Romney's foreign policy chops, which means something coming from a former Secretary of State. He was on Morning Joe and said he wondered what Mitt was thinking when he'd said Russia was our number one geopolitical foe. He actually said, "C'mon, Mitt, think," which should be on a t-shirt for sale in every business in America until November. And he reported that Romney's comments were, "catching a lot of heck from the more regular GOP foreign affairs community who were kind of taken aback by it." Gotta love a man who says "catching a lot of heck" as though it was a totally normal thing to say. Primarily he seems worried about who Romney has advising him. He said, "Some of them are quite far to the right, and sometimes they, I think, might be in a position to make judgments or recommendations to the candidate that should get a second thought." Ooh, burn. Anyway, it's safe to say that Romney probably wishes that Powell would keep his mouth shut.

But openly questioning the foreign policy know-how of the Republican presidential candidate isn't the only thing Powell has done today to upset the GOP gods. He also gave a very matter-of-fact endorsement of gay marriage. In an interview on CNN, he said, "I have no problems with it." He added,

In terms of the legal matter of creating a contract between two people that's called marriage, and allowing them to live together with the protection of law, it seems to me is the way we should be moving in this country. And so I support the president's decision.


Well, okay, then. It's pretty hilarious to think that at one point the Republicans in this country were falling all over themselves trying to get him to run for President. Just think where that would have taken the party—definitely to a place that would be far more tolerable than where they are today.

Colin Powell endorses gay marriage [Politico]

Colin Powell questions Mitt Romney's foreign policy: "C'mon, Mitt, think." [Boston Globe]