After Elizabeth Edwards announced her cancer had returned last week, comedian Rush Limbaugh criticized her and her husband, the presidential candidate John Edwards, for staying in the race:

Now, let me say something else that might be accused of cynicism: What is their religion? I don’t doubt they’re religious people, but, we talked about this. Political people are different than you and I. And, you know, most people when told a family member’s been diagnosed with the kind of cancer Elizabeth Edwards has, they turn to God. The Edwards turned to the campaign.

Their religion is politics and the quest for the White House. And that’s — it’s not just with them, I mean, it’s part and parcel of political people — undergo all this stuff, the media anal all over their private life being made public even by the candidates themselves — it’s all part of the drill.

After slamming the Edwards over their reaction to Elizabeth’s cancer diagnosis, Limbaugh went on — with typical blindness to his own rank hypocrisy — and slammed Sen. Hillary Clinton by harshly suggesting that she would “find a way” to criticize the Edwardses. (She could just read his statement out loud, of course.)

Now that White House spokesman Tony Snow has announced that his colon cancer has returned, it is fair to wonder what Limbaugh will say about it. Of course, the likelihood he’ll suggest that Snow’s announcement is a political ploy to gain sympathy for the White House — despite abounding evidence they could use it — ranges between slim and none.

Instead, Limbaugh will treat Snow’s diagnosis, and his choice in how to handle it, with the sort of sympathy and deference that he should have given Elizabeth Edwards.