Powell and the Judgment Bus

Posted By Pinch

This is just too sweeeeet to pass up.

I'm a big one on "judgment".  I'm not talking about the judicial kind, but rather of the "good or bad" judgment kind.  Its a rather big deal when you strap your soft pink body into a jet on a steam catapult on a nuclear aircraft carrier and you have 20,000 lbs of jet fuel 2 feet under your butt - you'd like all the people who are supposed to get you safely in the air and back again to have at least good judgment on things related to your well being.  Judgment is a big deal to me.

And to me, it appears, that retired General Colin Powell has fallen smack dab on his keester off the Judgment Bus.

Powell was recently a "character witness" in the corruption trial of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens - as in a character witness for Stevens' "good character" (cough cough).

"He was a trusted individual whose word you could rely on," said Powell, also saying Stevens' word was "sterling".

"When you shook hands with Ted Stevens, it would benefit the nation in the long run." Powell said (well, it sure benefited those contractors and Stevens himself, with that nice little chalet.  Perhaps Stevens was just doing what he could to stimulate the economy in his own little way).

The only problem was that less than 2 days later, after a mere 5 hours of deliberation, Stevens is convicted on all 7 felony charges of lying and for making false statements by failing to report more than $250,000 in gifts from Bill Allen, the former head of Veco Corp., and other friends.

I'm not certain the word of Powell, after his Obama endorsement and his "sterling" support of Stevens, is worth the proverbial warm bucket of spit right now - to anyone but Democrats, that is.  The fact that the defense had planned to call up to 10 of these "character witnesses", including  Sen. Daniel Inouye and Sen. Ted Kennedy just tells me more about this "judgment" thing (or lack thereof) with regards to Senators than anything else (not dropping that collegial BS and country-club-like atmosphere when one of your cloak-room buddies screws the pooch is really getting pretty silly).

Stevens was a decorated WW 2 vet, flying C-47 Skytrain support missions for the Flying Tigers, and for that service I will be the first in thanking him.  But today, he is a convicted felon, an embarrassment to not only the Republican party but to anyone who has ever held elected office anywhere, and Gen. Powell's words of support and high praise for his character and his "sterling" word is just more puke for the bucket. 

Although one *could* rationalize that Stevens was true to Powell's word and that he was just...you know..."spreading the wealth around", participating in a bit of income redistribution.  Nothing wrong with that.  Right?  Perhaps next he can work on redefining the liberties enshrined in the US Constitution so they would be a bit less negative.

Hat Tip to Kevin from the comments over on the Instapinch for the head's up.

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Comments

Powell and the Judgment Bus

This is just too sweeeeet to pass up.

I'm a big one on "judgment".  I'm not talking about the judicial kind, but rather of the "good or bad" judgment kind.  Its a rather big deal when you strap your soft pink body into a jet on a steam catapult on a nuclear aircraft carrier and you have 20,000 lbs of jet fuel 2 feet under your butt - you'd like all the people who are supposed to get you safely in the air and back again to have at least good judgment on things related to your well being.  Judgment is a big deal to me.

And to me, it appears, that retired General Colin Powell has fallen smack dab on his keester off the Judgment Bus.

Powell was recently a "character witness" in the corruption trial of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens - as in a character witness for Stevens' "good character" (cough cough).

"He was a trusted individual whose word you could rely on," said Powell, also saying Stevens' word was "sterling".

"When you shook hands with Ted Stevens, it would benefit the nation in the long run." Powell said (well, it sure benefited those contractors and Stevens himself, with that nice little chalet.  Perhaps Stevens was just doing what he could to stimulate the economy in his own little way).

The only problem was that less than 2 days later, after a mere 5 hours of deliberation, Stevens is convicted on all 7 felony charges of lying and for making false statements by failing to report more than $250,000 in gifts from Bill Allen, the former head of Veco Corp., and other friends.

I'm not certain the word of Powell, after his Obama endorsement and his "sterling" support of Stevens, is worth the proverbial warm bucket of spit right now - to anyone but Democrats, that is.  The fact that the defense had planned to call up to 10 of these "character witnesses", including  Sen. Daniel Inouye and Sen. Ted Kennedy just tells me more about this "judgment" thing (or lack thereof) with regards to Senators than anything else (not dropping that collegial BS and country-club-like atmosphere when one of your cloak-room buddies screws the pooch is really getting pretty silly).

Stevens was a decorated WW 2 vet, flying C-47 Skytrain support missions for the Flying Tigers, and for that service I will be the first in thanking him.  But today, he is a convicted felon, an embarrassment to not only the Republican party but to anyone who has ever held elected office anywhere, and Gen. Powell's words of support and high praise for his character and his "sterling" word is just more puke for the bucket. 

Although one *could* rationalize that Stevens was true to Powell's word and that he was just...you know..."spreading the wealth around", participating in a bit of income redistribution.  Nothing wrong with that.  Right?  Perhaps next he can work on redefining the liberties enshrined in the US Constitution so they would be a bit less negative.

Hat Tip to Kevin from the comments over on the Instapinch for the head's up.

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