Poll: Republicans view Limbaugh, Cheney, Gingrich as party leaders

When asked who speaks for the Republican Party, Republicans say Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney and Newt Gingrich, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll released Wednesday.

Ten percent of Republicans said Limbaugh, the radio talk show host, and 10 percent said Gingrich are the leading voices of the party. He was followed by Cheney at 9 percent.

Check out this chart.

Interestingly, Limbaugh also registered the highest percentage of Democrats – 18 percent – who say he speaks for the GOP. Twelve percent of Democrats said Cheney speaks for the GOP.

Democrats will undoubtedly rejoice when they see these numbers. As we have noted (again and again), Democrats are more than happy to have Limbaugh, Cheney and Gingrich leading the GOP. They seem those three as Republican faces of the past, not the future, and out of touch with important swing voters (see this web ad and these press releases).

Democrats, of course, will also point out that none of these three are currently elected lawmakers.

There was a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points in the survey.

UPDATE: This post was updated at 3:45 P.M.

jeremy.jacobs@digital-staging.thehill.com