Dick Cheney

Dick Cheney serves as the Vice President of the United States, first elected in 2000 along with President George W. Bush. Cheney was re-elected along with President Bush in 2004.

Life and Family

Richard 'Dick' Cheney was born in Lincoln, Nebraska.[1] He has both a BA and an MA in Political Science from the University of Wyoming [2]. He married his wife Lynne Cheney in 1964. They have two daughters; Elizabeth and Mary. Mary is a controversial figure, as she is a lesbian, who has a daughter with her same-sex partner. This is direct contrast with the views of a large number of the Bush Administration's supporters, who are opposed to homosexuality on religious and moral grounds. Mr. Cheney believes same-sex marriage and other laws relating to homosexuality should be decided at State Level. [3]

Political Career

Richard Cheney assumed his first political post as an assistant to Wisconsin Governor Warren P. Knowles in the early 1960s. at the age of 28 when he became an intern near the beginning of the Richard Nixon administration. He quickly came to the attention of Donald Rumsfeld, then directing the Office of Economic Opportunity, and was promoted to a paid position in 1971. When Watergate forced Nixon's resignation in 1973, Cheney became vice president of an investment firm for a year, but Rumsfeld convinced Gerald Ford upon the latter's accession to the presidency that Cheney was indispensible, and he was recalled to public service. Eventually Cheney replaced Rumsfeld as Chief of Staff to Ford as Rumsfeld was promoted to Secretary of Defense.

Upon hearing that Cheney had been chosen by Bush as his running mate, Paula Jones who was notable in some of the early Clinton scandals ssued to disqualify them from receiving the electoral votes of Texas. Her theory was that under the 12th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, no state may give its electoral vote to a Presidential ticket both of whose members are from that state. Republican lawyers argued that Cheney's ties to Wyoming were more significant than those to Texas, which had effectively been dissolved as soon as Lynne carried out Richard's instructions to sell their house there. Whatever its implications for a literal reading of the Amendment, this argument prevailed in Federal district court, and Jones did not appeal. Had Jones won, Albert Gore would have won the 2000 election, as the margin in the Electoral College was a scant five votes.

Health Issues:

In March 2007 Mr. Cheney had surgery to remove a blood clot in his leg, the result of extended periods of sitting while airborne during the international PR mission that brought him out of his normally undisclosed location.

Military Service:

Mr. Cheney has never served in the military, having acquired no less than 5 deferrals during the VietNam War.

s:

On February 11, 2006, Mr. Cheney shot his hunting partner in the face after mistaking him for a quail.

Cheney sprayed Whittington with birdshot on his face and upper torso in Saturday's hunting accident. Whittington suffered a mild heart attack Tuesday, doctors said, after a piece of birdshot in his body migrated to a heart muscle. ... "My family and I are deeply sorry for all that Vice President Cheney and his family have had to go through this week," Whittington said. http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/02/17/cheney/

Category:Vice Presidents of the United States