Footnore to the preceding

Quote of the week, via TalkingPointsMemo:

"If it was up to me, I would close Guantanamo. Not tomorrow, but this afternoon. I'd close it," he said.

"And I would not let any of those people go," he said. "I would simply move them to the United States and put them into our federal legal system. The concern was, well then they'll have access to lawyers, then they'll have access to writs of habeas corpus. So what? Let them. Isn't that what our system is all about?"

- Colin Powell on "Meet the Press," June 10

Of course, a Footnote: Nearly 3¹/₂ years ago, I asked:

Remember when we used to think that Colin Powell, no matter his politics, was a man with some degree of honor?

I took to calling him Colin Powerless. Reading the transcript of his "Meet the Press" appearance, I got the impression of a man with genuine regrets and who is thinking of his place in history and hopes to reclaim some of the honor and respect he sacrificed in the pursuit of slavish loyalty. I actually felt kind of sorry for him.