Powell Shoots Down VP Speculation

WASHINGTON (CNN, Mar. 16) -- Although Republican leaders, including House Speaker Newt Gingrich, are urging Colin Powell to become the vice-presidential nominee, the retired general says he is not interested -- at least not this year.

In an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Powell reiterated that he is not running for public office in 1996 and expressed irritation at suggestions that he would.

"It really irritates me that a few people are purporting to speak for me, stirring up this feeding frenzy about my running for vice president," Powell said in the interview, which appears in the newspaper's Sunday edition.

Republican front-runner Bob Dole recently implied that Powell might reconsider his decision if he was convinced that his country needed him.

Powell announced last November that he had no interest in being a candidate in 1996, but polls show that his inclusion on the GOP ticket would give a strong boost to Dole's efforts to defeat President Clinton.

Republican leaders Gingrich and New York Sen. Alfonse D'Amato are urging Powell to change his mind.

Speaking at a town hall meeting with constituents, Gingrich said odds are the Senate majority leader will choose one of three people -- Powell, Michigan Gov. John Engler, or California Attorney General Dan Lungren -- to fill out the Republican ticket.

Gingrich also said he believed Powell would accept such an offer.

"It's very hard for me to imagine, after a lifetime of service, Powell turning down that kind of appeal," the Georgia Republican said.

D'Amato, chairman of Dole's national campaign steering committee, said Dole should ignore threats of a GOP convention walkout from Patrick Buchanan and ask Powell to be his vice-presidential nominee.

D'Amato, on CNN's Inside Politics Weekend, called Powell "a great American success story" who would make an effective running mate in the campaign and partner in the White House.

D'Amato said Buchanan should not be "the moral ayatollah" of the Republican Party who decides who can be in the party and who can run for office.

Buchanan has warned that his followers would leave the party if Dole chose Powell, who has described himself as a "Rockefeller Republican." Buchanan has demanded that Dole pick a running mate who is more conservative and holds anti-abortion views.

"Is Pat Buchanan suggesting that anybody who's pro-choice should be banned from the Republican Party?" D'Amato asked. "If he threatens his walkout, as he has, fine, let him do it."

Powell Shoots Down VP Speculation

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