The former Libertarian Party presidential nominee is backing Russ Feingold in Wisconsin. Which is, um, odd considering Feingold is one of the staunchest progressives in the United States Senate.

He co-authored McCain-Feingold, arguably one of the most anti-free speech pieces of legislation in decades. He supports government-run health care. His record on the Second Amendment is mixed. He favors redistributing wealth. He’s big government on just about every issue of the day.

And yet somehow he’s this great defender of the Constitution?

What I look for in Washington are folks in the Senate and the House who put the Constitution first. Not the “R” or the “D”, not partisan politics but the Constitution. And what you have in Russ, and I have worked closely with him over a number of years to try to rein in the Patriot Act, to try to rein in the government surveillance and so forth — this is a man who understands the Constitution, who supports and fights sometimes against his own party to defend the Constitution in the Congress of the United States in ways that are much more consistent and much more proactive than a lot of Republicans.

So it’s okay that he supports restricting free speech and gun rights, backs the redistribution of wealth, wants a single-payer health care system…all of that’s fine just so long as he opposes the Patriot Act? Yeah, okay, whatever.