I'm starting to get a much clearer handle on why I've never cared much for this guy

When Colin Powell first came to my attention, he was a Desert Storm general, and, for a brief time, I admired him greatly.  The press conference in which he pointed to a map of Iraqi troop movements and said "The objective is to cut it off and kill it" was pure gold.

Then he retired from the Army and embarked on his civilian career.  He was harmless enough during his stint running that foundation dedicated to helping kids read better or whatever, but, because he went that route rather than into actual think-tank work, my interest level waned rapidly.  He spoke at Republican conventions and his name was even floated as a presidential candidate, but it was those circumstances that brought his ideological squishiness to the fore - being on board with affirmative action, being cool with the extermination of fetal Americans.  Hence I was uneasy about his placement as Secretary of State in the first W administration, a feeling compounded when stories about his tense relations with Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld began to surface.

Since then, he's become downright obnoxious.  Of course, that's my feeling about anybody who has publicly waxed enthusiastically about the Most Equal Comrade - and, yes, I realize that, by that definition, in more than half the encounters in my daily life, I'm dealing with obnoxiousness.

But his appearance on Meet the Press this morning, so aptly covered by Ben Shapiro at Brietbart, is a new low.  The guy is either disingenuous in the extreme or appallingly ill-informed.  What the hell prompted him to utter the inanity - with no substantiation - that a major problem with today's GOP is the prevalence of birtherism?  And trotting our a chip on the shoulder over various Pub figures' use of terms like "lazy" or "shuck and jive" is a tactic worthy of Cornel West, not an ostensibly distinguished statesman.

Do us a favor, General, and go the full Charlie Crist / Lincoln Chafee/ Arlen Specter.  We're trying to cultivate a pro-Western-greatness party here, and it's clear you have a whole other set of values.