Via Greg Hengler at Townhall. It’s superficially surreal to watch a former VP side against his own Secretary of State, especially given Powell’s public approval rating vis-a-vis Limbaugh’s, but what’s Cheney supposed to say here realistically? That he thinks a guy who voted for Obama and has been known to muse that “Americans are looking for more government in their life, not less” is a superior spokesman for a conservative party? This is like asking a lefty blogger if the Democrats are better off with Keith Olbermann or McCain-lovin’ maverick Joe Lieberman. Sure, Liebs is the more impressive person, but which one’s closer to the “progressive” ideal?

Even so, the left loves this soundbite for the sweet, sweet identity politics it lets them play. As one of them put it to me today on Twitter, “Cheney prefers a fat white drug addict to an African-American war hero!” Of course, they themselves preferred a drug user to a war hero in last year’s election, for the quite logical reason that they thought his policies were better. Funny how that’s not so logical to them in Cheney’s case.