I have to admit to being late to the game on this one, and I find it interesting to wonder why.

For a long time, I have taken a stance on Guantanamo Bay that has been less than popular with the right wingers. Some (a very small minority, but enough to be noted) have even gone so far as to question the patriotism of any who deviate from the Bush administration's hardline position on maintaining the base and denying basic human rights to its occupants, claiming that the fact that they are well fed and well clothed should mitigate the fact that they are being held in prison without benefit of trial (a right, for the record, that emanates not from the Constitution or the Declaration, but from the Magna Carta, a document that predates the DISCOVERY of America by the European world, let alone its settlement and organization).

So it was with a bit of a surprise that I came across a quote in June that called for the closure of Guantanamo Bay "this afternoon". The quote was from June 11, 2007. The source was not Diane Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, or Charlie Rangel. It was none other than former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

It was not long ago that Powell was respected in Republican circles; indeed I have heard not a few farm belt rednecks declare an allegiance to Powell if he chose to run for President. So it seems odd that Republican apologists have failed to pick up on these remarks from Powell because it is politically inconvenient to do so.

Powell's fall from grace within the Republican Party smacks of a Trotsky-esque exile that casts a longer and growing shadow over an administration that has virtually declared dissent to be treason, and free speech to be abetting the enemy. Powell, however, represents a view that is far more mainline and in accordance with the principles of human rights upon which this country was founded than anything that has escaped the mouth of the criminal from Crawford.

The GOP has failed to learn from the mistakes that have put their DNC rivals into a tailspin. By failing to give voice to opposition views within the party, they are alienating a large share of their voters. They need to listen to voices like Powell's that do not call for the imminent release of Guantanamo detainees, simply an affording of due process, or the consequences could well be that they fail to find themselves unable to win substantial elections.

Human rights, like compassion, is not a left-right issue. It is a humanitarian issue, and anyone who swears allegiance to the flag should have an equal allegiance to the causes that flag represents. Colin Powell gives me hope that there are some among the Republican Party who realize that if we put aside our core principles in waging a war, we have lost the war before the first shot was ever fired.