Too good to be true

The Democrats could have only made this up in their wildest dreams. What if the two most despised people in American politics -- Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney -- were to emerge as the leading spokespeople for their cause. Well, son of a gun, that's exactly what's happened. Can you say "playing right into our hands" or "stepping on their own tails?"

That's the scenario that's playing itself out and mostly because these two guys are so stuck on their own egos that they can't stand to take a back seat when their party is hurting and needs anything but their universal unpopularity and polarization to fan the flames of its demise. Gosh the guys in the White House strategy office must be rubbing their hands together and rolling on the floor. Can you imagine the kinds of ideas rolling around in the heads of Paul Begala and James Carville about now?

The Limbaugh thing was kind of predictable. Everyone knows what a blowviator and egomaniac he is. But the Cheney thing comes straight out of left field. This is not the pose of ex-presidents and vice presidents. When they leave office, they're supposed to be statesmanlike. Huh, Cheney a statesman?

I mean what were his approval ratings when he left office? Below 20%? By comparison, he makes Bush look like an American hero. He's got his teeth around the torture issue and he's not going to let go, even if it means the Democrats now have doubled the number of attractive targets they now use to paint the Republican party as extreme and out of touch.