Next "Big Story" is Hillary Calling Cheney "Darth Vader"?

Just as the Republican noise machine and complicit beltway pundits have worked themselves into a lather over MoveOn.org calling Gen. Petraeus "Gen. Betray-Us" in a newspaper ad last week, it could be they will try to stoke up a similar furor over Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) jokingly referring to Vice President Dick Cheney (R) last night at a fundraiser as "Darth Vader."

As Alexander Mooney notes on CNN, however, Cheney himself has assumed the Darth Vader nickname (in jest). "I suppose people sometimes look at my demeanor and say, well, he's the Darth Vader of the administration," he said last year.

And, of course, this is the same Dick Cheney who famously used the "F" word in a hostile encounter with a Democratic senator on the floor of that august chamber (and refused to apologize). And, Cheney and the GOP in general have heaped criticism on Clinton in the past. Recently the RNC actually arranged someone to dress up as a "Pander Bear" and stand outside a Clinton fundraiser.

But could any of that stop this from becoming the next big distraction on the cable TV shows? Not really.