Since The Washington Post reported on June 25 that Vice President Dick Cheney told Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) “fuck yourself” during a brief argument on the Senate floor, right-wing commentators have rallied to Cheney's defense.

On June 25, Mark R. Levin -- a WABC radio talk show host and president of the conservative Landmark Legal Foundation -- filling in for regular ABC Radio host Sean Hannity on his radio program The Sean Hannity Show, addressed Senator Leahy on Cheney's behalf:

LEVIN: By the way, Senator Leahy out there, “F-you.”

Radio host Rush Limbaugh, who was out on vacation June 25, weighed in on June 28, purporting to articulate what Cheney was thinking when he cursed at Leahy:

LIMBAUGH: “You expect me to come over here and act like you're my friend after all this rotgut garbage you're saying about me? F-you.”

LIMBAUGH: “F-you. You aren't my friend; I don't want you in my company. And I'm not going to smile when I'm around you, because you don't deserve my friendship. You haven't earned my friendship. You are my enemy. And I'm not going to come here and put on a show, phony-baloney show that says I like you, and that we are convivial, and that are we are colleagues, and all we do is disagree in the daytime, but at night we go out and have a beer. F-you. I don't want to have a beer with you. I don't want to be anywhere near you. I don't like you. You do not deserve my friendship, and don't act like we're friends here.”

Limbaugh concluded:

LIMBAUGH: [A]ll he [Cheney] did, was suggest a certain sexual practice that Senator Leahy try on himself.

Dick Morris, the onetime Clinton adviser turned critic, author and FOX News political analyst, appeared on FOX News Channel's Hannity & Colmes on June 28, where he suggested that Cheney could “get a medal for cursing” Senator Leahy:

MORRIS: But you know, you've got to realize, there's a special exemption in the United States Senate for cursing at Patrick Leahy. He's the most irascible member of the Senate. ...You can get a medal for cursing him.