Cheney Makes Incest Joke About West Virginians

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Source: The Huffington Post

Cheney was at the Press Club to congratulate this year's winners of the Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency. During a question-and-answer session toward the end of the luncheon, someone asked the vice president about his wife Lynne Cheney's revelation on MSNBC last year that "Dick and Barack Obama are eighth cousins."

The questioner jokingly asked the vice president if he and Obama were going to have a family reunion, to which Cheney replied he would "have no objections" though he said he doubted Obama would want one - "certainly not before November."

Then came the offensive punch line. Cheney explained that during the course of researching his family lineage for Lynne's memoir "Blue Skies, No Fences" last year, he learned there were Cheneys on both his father's and his mother's side of the family. There was a Richard Cheney on his mother's side, the vice president said.

"So I had Cheneys on both sides of the family and we don't even live in West Virginia," Cheney quipped.



Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/02/cheney-makes-incest-joke_n_104761.html

---

UPDATE: Cheney apologized. See the link above.

[MichiganVote]

1. The King of Tactless, that the Cheney heritage

[mhatrw]

47. He also has dicks on both sides of the family. n/t

[americanyouth]

2. I have more disrespect for people who DO apologize after that kind of stuff...

...what kind of man publicly apologizes for a shitty joke. Punani.

[JDPriestly]

3. That was rural American way back when. Cousins settled the same towns and areas.

That does not mean that the cousins were closely related by the time Cheney's ancestors wed. I don't think there are any similar instances in my family, but I know that a lot of families have the same last name in my mother's hometown. She did not marry someone from that town or area.

[ingac70]

5. A guy I used to date...

Had several first cousin marriages in his family. One couple were double first cousins! Several children has severe deformities.

If he hadn't been adopted I woulda stopped dating him, for fear of accidentally polluting my gene pool.

This is in Tennessee.

[JDPriestly]

19. That's a scary story.

[ingac70]

55. to make things worse...

this took place in Nashville (Davidson County) in the last (at least) 70 years. Can't use the "rural" excuse there!

[Raejeanowl]

7. Interesting Avatar For This Thread

Eleanor Roosevelt Roosevelt, since we're on the "cousins and inbreeding" topic.

My husband and I are natives of the same small town and have shared ancestors we've traced to the late 18th century. Seventh cousins-not exactly the legal or medical definition of "inbreeding."

We know how Cheney meant it: Ignorant, inbred, redneck-type bigotry. But as I've said before, ignorance isn't the sole province of the uneducated.

[JDPriestly]

17. You are sure right about ignorance not being the province of the uneducated.

[tblue37]

29. FDR and Eleanor had the same last name before they wed. They

were distant cousins.

[CRK7376]

41. My wife's maiden name and my Aunt

trace their families back to the same small Indiana town in the mid 1800s....there the linkage is lost. We have yet to confirm a kinship tie between the Pearson's. Our second son has Pearson as his middle name honoring both sides of the family...mostly my wife's though....

[Dr.Phool]

4. Well, DNA testing doesn't work in West Virginia. It's all the same.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

:hide:

And I was born in Chapmanville, W. Va, In Logan County. The heart of Hatfield-McCoy country.

[davidinalameda]

26. that's funny

I grew up in Tyler County

[tabasco]

6. Cheney is a rotten piece of filth who can only get a money-grubbing witch like Lynne.

Fuck off Chicken Dickie Mr. 5-deferments.

You lack any couth or honor whatsoever.

[bdamomma]

45. again he shows his disdain and total arrogance to the

American people. He can eff off.

[whistle]

8. Well this suggests that perhaps the lineage that Dick Cheney sprung from

...was not so lucky in romance beyond his immediate family as borne out in his marriage to Lynne

[Hepburn]

9. What a fucking asshole....

...the only good thing I can say about it, is at least the clueless POS did not make a gay joke.

:eyes:

[Supersedeas]

59. Image if Obama had said the same thing -- the Free Ride Double Standards just keep rolling

[TheWraith]

10. I can't believe I'm going to defend Cheney...

...But that's a reasonably harmless joke, at least in my opinion.

[nomorenomore08]

13. Harmless, maybe, but it does unintentionally reveal the contempt the likes of Cheney harbor

for their supposed "base," i.e. the white, rural working class. I have to wonder, would all these millions of people have voted for Bush and Co. if they knew what the wealthy GOP elite really thought of them?

[Ahpook]

21. I understand the true contempt these bastards have for...

the people of this country. I would bet they have even more towards the schmucko that will lay down at their feet without a question?

They only understand one damn thing.

[philly_bob]

20. Agreed. I have family in Virginia & have heard a lot of gross WV incest jokes.

Cheney's a contemptible political figure, but I'd give him a pass on this one.

I do NOT recommend starting a thread of these WV jokes. Think of the documentary about "The Aristocrats," the grossest joke in the world.

[WildClarySage]

31. Here's the problem:

The people he is insulting are the same ones working in the coal fields in WV- and his energy policy includes provisions and considerations that encourage the destruction of WV mountains and rivers at the hands of the coal industry- making him and his cronies more money every minute. So he is getting richer at the expense of our state while insulting us.

[philly_bob]

43. Thanks for educating me.

And when I think about it, my family members who make those WV incest jokes also are enriched by the coal industry (energy industry lawyers).

[Canuckistanian]

11. Well, you know what they say about people from Wyoming and sheep...

Of course, I discount it entirely.

In MOST cases.

[provis99]

54. Odd, I've heard that about Wyoming and sheep, too

Is there a grain of truth in the stereotype, at least as applies to ONE Wyoman?

[tom_paine]

12. You know how that works. When the Bushies shit on their followers, they smile and take it.

Actually, they don't even hear it.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[uberllama42]

15. We're all offended at this

but did we alert on comments about incest in WV during the primary there? If it's offensive for Cheney to make a remark like that, it's offensive for Obama supporters as well.

[daleo]

16. Cheney's real ancestors are all space lizards

And they reproduce via genetic parasitism.

[Lasher]

18. Well it looks like Cheney just handed WV's electoral votes to Democrats.

We'll see.

[Traction311]

30. I doubt that

I don't see more than 45% voting for a black man in that state.

[Lasher]

40. Reagan Quotes: Was He Really that Dumb?

"I never knew anything above Cs."
--President Reagan, in a moment of truthfulness, describes his academic record to Barbara Walters, November 27, 1981

"A tree's a tree. How many more do you need to look at?"
--Ronald Reagan (Governor of California), quoted in the Sacramento Bee, opposing expansion of Redwood National Park, March 3, 1966

"I don't believe a tree is a tree and if you've seen one you've seen them all."
--Governor Ronald Reagan, in the Sacramento Bee, September 14, 1966

"All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk."
--Ronald Reagan (Republican candidate for president), quoted in the Burlington (Vermont) Free Press, February 15, 1980. (In reality, the average nuclear reactor generates 30 tons of radioactive waste per year.)

"It's silly talking about how many years we will have to spend in the jungles of Vietnam when we could pave the whole country and put parking stripes on it and still be home by Christmas."
--Ronald Reagan (candidate for Governor of California), interviewed in the Fresno Bee, October 10, 1965

"I have a feeling that we are doing better in the war than the people have been told."
--Ronald Reagan, in the Los Angeles Times, October 16, 1967

"What planet is he living on?"
--President Mitterand of France poses this question about Reagan to Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau.

"Poor dear, there's nothing between his ears."
--British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher

"...like reinventing the wheel."
--Larry Speakes (Reagan's former press secretary) describing what it was like preparing the President for a press conference, Speaking Out: The Reagan Presidency from Inside the White House

"The task of watering the arid desert between Reagan's ears is a challenging one for his aides."
--Columnist David Broder

"He knows less about the budget than any president in my lifetime. He can't even carry on a conversation about the budget. It's an absolute and utter disgrace."
--House Speaker Tip O'Neill, after a meeting with Reagan, November 23, 1981

Edit: Buh bye, Traction311!

[evilkumquat]

22. Everyone Here is Missing the REAL Joke:

The "Gerald R. Ford" Journalism Prize...?

GERALD FORD...???

That piece of shit that pardoned Nixon and set the modern precedent that whoever sits in the Oval Office is immune from prosecution has a JOURNALISM PRIZE in his honor...???

What... the... FUCK?

It's like when that slimy bastard was awarded the goddamned Profiles in Courage award a few years back for his "courage" in pardoning Nixon and thus sabotaging his own chance of a second term.

HELLO? HE WASN'T ELECTED THE FIRST TIME! (A GOP pattern, though).

[Raejeanowl]

23. He Was Also One Of The Warren Commission Leaders

Helped hamstring the assassination investigation and resultantly muddy the truth of the conspiracy in perpetuity.

Same premise: Our nation has to heal. Yeah, right.

[murielm99]

48. I am glad I scrolled down through this thread.

That is exactly what I was going to say. I laughed when I saw the name of the award.

I wonder what other types of silly awards the republicans can dream up. The Richard M. Nixon Integrity in Government Award? The George W. Bush Excellence in Public Speaking Award?

[Towlie]

24. If you go to your familty reunion to meet women....

you might be Dick Cheney!

[KSinTX]

25. Worse than the joke was the follow-up

According to Byrd, "With his trademark arrogance, the Vice President even added 'You can say those things when you're not running for re-election.'"

[Enthusiast]

27. He should be nailed on this one.

Once again he is an insensitive prick. This is fodder for OUR swiftboat action. How much do you admire Dick Cheney, again, John McCain?

[HatoriHanzo88]

32. Another example of the media telling you what to think.

Why should he be nailed? I hold a passionate hatred for Dick Cheney, but i stand by my principles of freedom of speech. It's called humour, and someone should never be made to apologise for speaking their mind, be they liberal, conservative, neocon, or whatever.

Dick Cheney made a joke, big deal. It is this kind of over sensitive outrage that has become the downfall of society. We all saw it in the UK with the "big brother race row"; and situations like this usually lead to the media telling you what to be offended by, like they're saying "This should offend you, you must be outraged by this" and it disturbs me somewhat.

I think Cheney is a neo conservative pig, but that doesn't disqualify him from expressing some humour when he feels like it, regardless to what me, or anyone thinks.

[Enthusiast]

39. Wrong!

Being passive in the face of constant attacks is why the Democratic Party is rightly seen as weak. We need to hit this prick hard and not let up until he apologizes five different times on live TV. Where has being whimpish gotten us as a party?

[JI7]

28. if Obama or some other Dem said this, the whore media would be all over it

[doxieone]

33. He has apologized.....

as if apologizing makes it go ahead. They just showed film of this on CNN.

[riskpeace]

34. Sadly. Vice President's Cheney's joke

would have fit in real well here at DU around the WV primary.

[Barack_America]

35. I always suspected he was hanging out in GD-Primaries...

This confirms it!

;)

[BigDaddy44]

36. Let he who is without sin....

C'mon. Lets be honest. Who amongst us has never ever told or chuckled at a West Virginia joke. I would posit that if you haven't, you're a bit too tightly wound.

[HatoriHanzo88]

38. +1

[KansDem]

37. Hey! Lay off him! He's wearing a flag lapel pin, isn't he?

:sarcasm:

[mike_c]

42. oh for pete's sake-- all this righteous indignation is better spent...

...on more worthy topics. Who here has NEVER made an off-color remark? I used to live in West Virginia-- I and my neighbors routinely joked about inbreeding. It's a JOKE that expresses a real social phenomenon, whether we're talking about genetic heterozygosity or about intellectual provincialism.

[complain jane]

52. There's just a wee bit of difference

between West Virginians cracking a joke insulting West Virginians, and the president of the United States doing it.

[mitchum]

44. He makes that joke and he's from fucking Wyoming???!!!

[whoneedstickets]

46. How dare he insult Hillary's people!!!

She needs to turn on the umbrage machine ASAP.

[mulsh]

49. so, when will West Virginia apologize for Dick's joke

n/t

[complain jane]

51. LOL

[complain jane]

50. What a jackass

Not that I'm surprised to hear he has no respect for the people he serves

[last_texas_dem]

53. And I thought it was us Democrats who were the elitists?

I mean, that's what the media and the Repugs keep saying. I'm so confused...

[fujiyama]

56. I wish I cared

but considering they voted for the motherfucker twice...maybe they really are a little slow after all in the state...

[Tight_rope]

57. Let him enjoy while he can...we are coming after that devil. I want to see him rot in jail.

[Mudoria]

58. No worse than what many Obama supporters

were calling West Virginians just a few weeks ago in GD: P.

[ryanmuegge]

60. Imagine if Michelle Obama said this.

Three would be non-stop "elitist" storyline coverage until November.