Decision Keeps Gop On The High Ground Gop The Winner A Unified Party Won’t Stray Into ‘Mushy Middle’

Who can blame the country’s moderates and media pundits for being crestfallen by Colin Powell’s decision not to seek the presidency?

He’s what they thought wishy-washy “New Democrat” Bill Clinton was when he came to power: A leader. A fiscal conservative. A moral moderate who won’t take guff from the religious right. A unifying force. Plus, Powell had advantages over Ol’ 43 Percent: He’s also a military general, the first black with a bona fide chance to win the presidency, and a best-selling author.

The moderates (who basically are liberals without the guts to say so) went gaga in their uncritical hero worship. In fact, Arianna Huffington, the new GOP queen bee of Washington, D.C., endorsed him in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece.

But a potential Powell candidacy faced one major problem: At best, he’s a Rockefeller Republican. His support of abortion, gun control and affirmative action are Democratic and independent positions - not the mainstream views of the party that nominated Goldwater and Reagan.

In fact, Powell posed a serious threat to the Republican party - and still does if he can be coaxed into becoming the GOP’s vice presidential candidate. He would have driven a deep wedge between moderates and the religious conservatives, who revived the rudderless GOP after the Reagan revolution lost steam.

Gary Bauer, of the Family Research Council, pinpointed Powell’s unique menace: “The surest way to sunder the conservative coalition that has brought the GOP to the zenith of its influence in modern America would be to nominate an individual whose credo drags the party into the ‘mushy middle.”’

The Republicans have staked out the moral high ground with their defense of our most defenseless, the unborn. Despite defections and press smears, the GOP is winning the battle of ideas against a Democratic Party taken captive by environmental extremists, gay activists and other usual suspects of the far left.

That’s why Powell officially became a Republican this week.

The GOP can win the White House without Gen. Powell.

But Republicans can’t keep Congress without its socially conservative foot soldiers.

Powell did his new party a big favor by not forcing it to choose between the two.

, DataTimes MEMO: For opposing view, see headline: Here we voters sit, in a field of weeds

The following fields overflowed: SUPCAT = COLUMN, EDITORIAL - From both sides