Dick Cheney

American politician, selected as a running mate by George W. Bush on 7/24/2000. He brings to the GOP ticket a wealth of foreign policy experience and political stature and formerly served in the cabinet of President George Bush. A rock-solid conservative, Cheney opposes abortion rights, opposes gun-control and has opposed the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act. He has voted against Environmental Cleanups and has supported Oil Drilling in Alaska's wilderness. He is a staunch supporter of Defense, the production of chemical weapons. He supports the death penalty. He favors raising the Social Security retirement age from 65 to 67 and opposes coverage of long-term care for the chronically ill. He opposes the Equal Rights Amendment and supports prayer in public schools. Cheney attended Yale University on a scholarship but dropped out after three semesters. He took a job with the Utilities Company working as a lineman for two years before resuming his education at the University of Wyoming, his future wife’s home. Lynne Ann Vincent was born 8/14/1941 in Casper, Wyoming. At school, Dick played football and was senior class president, and Lynne was homecoming queen. They married on 8/29/1964 and have two daughters, Elizabeth and Mary. After a B.A. in 1965 and an M.A. in 1966 in Political Science, Cheney left school in 1968 without completing his Ph.D. dissertation. The family moved to the Washington, DC area in 1969 when Cheney took a Congressional internship. In February 1973, Cheney became Vice President at a Washington-based investment firm. After Gerald Ford became U.S. President, Chaney became deputy to White House Chief of Staff Rumsfield. In September 1974, he was named Deputy Assistant by President Ford and the following year, on 11/05/1975, he became Ford’s chief of staff. Returning to Wyoming in 1976, Cheney ran for a seat in the House of Representatives. He had a mild heart attack during the primaries, and won the election, serving from 1978-89, eventually becoming House Republican whip. On 3/10/1989, he was named Secretary of Defense by President George Bush and he earned widespread praise for his handling of the Gulf War in 1991. He was known as the congressman who never saw a weapons system he didn't love. Lynne also became a prominent political figure, serving as chairwoman of the National Endowment of the Humanities from 1986 to 1993, under Bush and, previously, Ronald Reagan. With a PhD from the University of Wisconsin in British Literature, she has written many books, including one with her husband, "Kings of the Hill: How Nine Powerful Men Changed the Course of American History." "What you've seen on television is what I've seen at home," says his wife. "He's calm, deliberate, not given to speechifying in an old-fashioned way, just says what he thinks the situation is. He's an unusual politician, not a back-slapping kind of guy. He works a room very well, by talking about things that are real and serious. He doesn't do small talk." As a householder, he does not do the12-hour days that interfere with his home life but goes home at night to have dinner and talk over their day with Lynne. His low-key profile includes shopping and cooking duties alongside Lynne. In 1993, Cheney moved into the private sector, serving as chairman and CEO of Dallas-Based Halliburton Corp., an engineering and construction company for oil companies that specialize in the development of oil and gas production around the world. The presidential elections were held on 11/07/2000, leading to one of the most dramatic and confusing contests ever witnessed. When the issue of uncounted ballots finally went to the Supreme Court, the conclusion was upheld on December 12 that Bush was the winner by a number of several hundred votes. Dick Cheney was the new vice-president of the United States, sworn in on 1/20/2001. Dick Cheney checked himself into the hospital "very early in the morning" on 11/22/00 after feeling chest pains. The news reported he did turn out to have a "very mild heart attack" with surgery to put a stint in (which keeps a weak artery open). His previous "mild heart attacks" were in 1978, 1984 and in 1988 when he had quadruple bypass surgery. After four heart attacks, Cheney is clearly aware of alert signals in his body. He checked himself into a Washington hospital once more on 3/05/2001 to clear a partly blocked artery after he complained of chest pains. Doctors at George Washington University said that a coronary artery that was opened last November had narrowed again by 90% because of scar tissue and that the tube was reopened with a balloon angioplasty and he would resume his vice-presidential duties later in the week. The man who is "a heart-beat away from the presidency" once again had that heart-beat corrected with the installation of a pace-maker on 7/31/2001, returning to work two days later. On September 1, 2004 at about 10:24 PM in New York at the Republican National Convention, Cheney accepted the nomination for a second term as Vice President on the Bush-Cheney ticket (time from observation, not official news source). In the election held November 2, 2004, he and Bush won the popular and electoral votes, for another four years in office. At 11:49 AM on January 20, 2005 the Vice President completed his oath of office for his second term (time taken from personal observation). The US Vice President underwent surgery in Washington, DC on September 24, 2005 to remove arterial aneurysms found behind both knees. The surgery was successful and he was released from the hospital the following day. The U.S. Vice President accidentally shot and injured his hunting partner, 78-year old millionaire Henry Whittington. They were hunting quail in Texas on February 11, 2006 when Cheney let loose a spray of gunshot pellets at what he thought was quail. Whittington was hospitalized, and the White House was criticized for not reporting the accident publicly for nearly 24 hours after it happened. Just a year later, on a surprise visit to Afghanistan Vice President Cheney narrowly escaped harm on February 27, 2007 when a suicide bomber attacked the military compound where Cheney was staying. He was diagnosed with deep venous thrombosis in his left leg on March 5, 2007. The next day, March 6, his chief aide Scooter Libby was found guilty of four felony counts of giving false statements to the FBI, twice perjuring himself in front of the Grand Jury and obstruction of justice. The verdict only served to spotlight the many questions asked about Cheney’s (and Karl Rove’s) possible roles in the Valerie Plame affair. With lots of news coverage, his sixth grandchild, Samuel David Cheney was born on May 23, 2007 to his daughter and her same-sex partner. Cheney is adamantly opposed to same-sex marriage and has been an advocate of the traditional family and has refused to talk much about his daughter's lifestyle choice or sexual orientation, saying it's not a political matter. Cheney's heart health appears to have worsened. Following several problematic episodes, he underwent surgery in July 2010 in which a pump was installed near his heart to enable it to work more efficiently. In August 2011, a noticeably thinner Cheney was unapologetically steady in his continued endorsement of the Bush administration Iraq invasion and the use water boarding as a method to extract information from "high value targets." His tell-all book, "In My Time," co-written with his daughter Liz, will have "heads exploding all over Washington," he told an interviewer. On 24 March 2012, Cheney underwent a seven-hour heart transplant procedure at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Virginia, at the age of 71. He had been on a waiting list for more than 20 months before receiving the heart from an anonymous donor Link to Wikipedia biography Link to Astrodienst discussion forum