By: Guest ContributorJul. 5th, 2009more from Guest Contributor

The never ending war of words between former Sec. of State Colin Powell and talk show host Rush Limbaugh escalated today to include Obama Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. Powell said of Limbaugh’s claims of reverse racism that it was, “nonsense.”Powell said that the GOP has a race problem.

Here is the video courtesy of Think Progress:

Powell said, “Judge Sonia Sotomayor seems like a gifted and accomplished woman. She certainly has an open and liberal bent of mind but that’s not disqualifying. But she seems to have a judicial record that seems to be balanced and tries to follow the law. And so I hope we do have a spirited set of hearings. And Supreme Court confirmation hearings tend to always meet that standard. And she ought to be asked about everything from both the left and the right. What we can’t continue to have is to have somebody like a Judge Sotomayor who is announced, and based on one simple tricky but nonetheless case that the Supreme Court has now decided have her called a “racist,” or a “reverse racist” and she ought to withdraw her nomination because we’re mad at her.”

Powell addressed claims of racism and GOP’s race problem, “And when you have non-elected officials such as we have in our party who immediately shout racism or somebody who is quite prominent in the media says the only basis upon which I could possibly have supported Obama was because he was black and I was black even though I laid out my judgment on the candidates, then we still have a problem.”

This is out of the no duh department, as it should be obvious to anyone who is paying attention that the GOP has a serious race problem. The Republicans have neglected African American voters for decades, but put the nail in their own coffin when they decided to attack Hispanic voters with their racist stance on immigration.

There aren’t enough white Republicans in the United States for the GOP to win national elections. Powell was only stating the obvious, when he addressed Limbaugh’s race based attacks against Sotomayor. When Limbaugh claims racism, or that Powell only supported Obama because he is black, his overwhelmingly white Republican listener ship eats it up, but he is only serving to further alienate minorities, and push them away from the GOP.