Dick Cheney

Richard Bruce Cheney (born January 30, 1941), widely known as Dick Cheney, is an American politician and businessman affiliated with the U.S. Republican Party. He is currently the 46th Vice President of the United States under President George W. Bush.

Early life and family

Cheney was born in Lincoln, Nebraska to Richard Herbert Cheney and Marjorie Dickey Cheney. His father worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a soil conservation agent and was a registred Democrat. He has a brother, Bob, and a sister, Susan. Cheney grew up in Casper, Wyoming, and met his high-school sweetheart and future wife, Lynne Vincent, at age 14. One of his first known ancestors was Ralph de Chesney, Sire of Quesnay who fought on the side of William the Conqueror in the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

Cheney excelled athletically in high school. He was elected the Natrona County High School senior class president, represented the school at Boys State, and played halfback on the football team. [1] [2][3] Beginning the summer after high school graduation in 1959 and during the next six years, Cheney worked on power lines and was a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union.

In 1964, he married Lynne Vincent. Mrs. Cheney has a B.A. with highest honors from Colorado College, an M.A. from The University of Colorado, and a Ph.D. from The University of Wisconsin specializing in British literature. She has authored or co-authored eight books and numerous articles. She served from 1986 to 1996 as Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, appointed by Ronald Reagan. She is now a public speaker, author, and co-host of Crossfire.

Cheney was of military age during the Vietnam War but never volunteered. On May 19, 1965, Cheney was classified as 1-A "available for service" by the Selective Service. On October 26, 1965 the Selective Service lifted the constraints on drafting childless married men. However, after his daughter was born, July 28, 1966--nine months and two days later--Cheney applied for and received a reclassification of 3-A, making him unlikely to be drafted.

Cheney has two adult daughters, Elizabeth and Mary, and four grandchildren. Elizabeth was born in 1966 and is married to Philip J. Perry, a Lockheed Martin Corp. lobbyist who was nominated by Pres. George W. Bush in March or April, 2005, to be General Counsel of the Department of Homeland Security. The Perrys have four children. Elizabeth graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 1996 and has worked as an international law attorney, consultant. She currently works for the State Department's Near East Affairs Bureau. Mary is one of her father's top campaign aides and closest confidantes and lives in Denver, Colorado. Mary's sexual orientation as a lesbian has become a source of increasing public attention for Dick Cheney in light of the recent same-sex marriage debate. In light of his daughter's situation, Cheney has declined to endorse the traditional Republican position of opposing marital rights for gay couples, although he has also refused to condemn it.

Education

Following high school, Cheney earned an academic scholarship and attended Yale University in 1959. He decided after three semesters to take some time off from Yale, on account of difficulty with his studies. He saved up enough money and returned to Yale only to leave again the following semester partly due to poor grades. [4][5]

In 1962, when he was 21, he pleaded guilty to two DWIs in Wyoming. [6] [7] He was reputedly dissatisfied with his work at the time, and in a May 7, 1991 New Yorker interview said that he found himself "working, building power lines, having been in a couple of scrapes with the law." He said that the arrests made him "think about where I was and where I was headed. I was headed down a bad road, if I continued on that course."

Refocusing on academics, Cheney first matriculated to Casper Community College in 1963 and thereafter to the University of Wyoming where he began earning straight A's. He received his bachelor's degree in 1965 and master's degree in political science in 1966 both from the University of Wyoming.

He attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a doctoral candidate in political science and completed all required coursework as an ABD, but left and entered politics before completing his thesis. Cheney was selected for a one-year fellowship in the office of Representative William Steiger, a Republican congressman from Wisconsin.

Early political career

Early White House appointments

Dick Cheney's public service career began under the Nixon administration in 1969. He served in a number of positions at the Cost of Living Council, at the United States Office of Economic Opportunity (as a special assistant to Donald Rumsfeld beginning in the spring of 1969), and within the White House. Under President Gerald Ford, Cheney became Assistant to the President and the youngest White House Chief of Staff in history. He was campaign manager for Ford's 1976 presidential campaign, while James Baker served as campaign chairman.

Congress

Cheney was elected to represent Wyoming in the U.S. House of Representatives to replace Teno Roncalio, who had resigned from Congress. He defeated his Democratic opponent, Bill Bagley, in the 1978 midterm elections. Cheney was reelected five times, serving until 1989. He was Chairman of the Republican Policy Committee from 1981 to 1987 when he was elected Chairman of the House Republican Conference. The following year, he was elected House Minority Whip.

Among the many votes he cast during his tenure in the House, he voted in 1979 with the majority against making Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday a national holiday, and again voted with the majority in 1983 when the measure passed.

He voted against the creation of the U.S. Department of Education, citing his concern over budget deficits and expansion of the federal government. He also believed it to be an encroachment to state´s rights.[8]

In 1986, after President Reagan vetoed a bill to impose economic sanctions against South Africa for its official policy of apartheid, Cheney was one of 83 Representatives who voted against overriding the veto. In later years, Cheney articulated his opposition to "unilateral sanctions," against many different countries, stating "they almost never work."[9] He also opposed unilateral sanctions against communist Cuba, and later in his career he would support multilateral sanctions against Iraq. However the comparison to Cuba is not exactly apt, as the European Community had voted to place limited sanctions upon South Africa in 1986.

In 1986, Cheney, along with 145 Republicans and 31 Democrats, voted against a nonbinding Congressional resolution calling on the South African government to release Nelson Mandela from prison, after the majority Democrats defeated proposed amendments to the language that would have required Mandela to renounce violence sponsored by the ANC and requiring the ANC to oust the Communist faction from leadership. The resolution was defeated.[10] Appearing on CNN during the Presidential campaign in 2000, Cheney addressed criticism for this, saying he opposed the resolution because the ANC "at the time was viewed as a terrorist organization and had a number of interests that were fundamentally inimical to the United States."[11]

As a Wyoming representative, he was also known for his vigorous advocacy of the state's petroleum and coal businesses. The federal building in Casper, a regional center of the oil and coal business, was named the "Dick Cheney Federal Building" for him.

Cabinet

Cheney served as the Secretary of Defense from March 1989 to January 1993 under President George H. W. Bush. He directed Operation Just Cause in Panama and Operation Desert Storm in the Middle East. In 1991 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for "preserving America's defenses at a time of great change around the world."

Business career

Cheney joined the American Enterprise Institute after leaving office in 1993. From 1995 until 2000, he served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Halliburton, a Fortune 500 company and market leader in the energy sector. He also sat on the Board of Directors of Procter & Gamble, Union Pacific, and EDS.

In 1997, he, along with Donald Rumsfeld and others, founded the "Project for the New American Century," a think tank whose self-stated goal is to "promote American global leadership".

Vice-Presidency

In the spring of 2000, while serving as Halliburton's CEO, he headed George W. Bush's Vice-Presidential search committee. After reviewing Cheney's findings, Bush surprised pundits by asking Cheney himself to join the Republican ticket.

In the 2000 presidential election, a question was raised by the Democrats as to Cheney's state of residency since he had been living in Texas. A lawsuit was brought in Jones v. Bush attempting to invalidate electoral votes from Texas under the provisions of the Twelfth amendment, but was rejected by a Federal district court in Texas.

Cheney quickly earned a reputation as a very "hands-on" Vice President, taking an active role in cabinet meetings and policy formation. He is often described as the most active and powerful Vice President in recent years, moving the office out of its traditional figurehead role. He even got an office in the House of Representatives. Some, like Reagan's last Chief of Staff, Ken Duberstein, have likened him to a prime minister because of his powerful position inside the Bush Administration. In his status as President of the Senate he has cast 6 (so far) tie-breaking votes, including deciding votes on concurring in the conference reports of the 2004 congressional budget and the Jobs and Growth Tax Reconciliation Act of 2003.

Cheney directed the National Energy Policy Development Group (NEPDG)[12] commonly known as the Energy task force. This group included several Enron executives who worked as team members despite the ongoing Enron scandal. In July 2003, the Supreme Court ordered the Department of Commerce to make the NEPDG's documents public. The documents included information on companies that had made agreements with Saddam Hussein to develop Iraq's oil. The documents also included maps of oil deposits in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates. The NEPDG's report contains several chapters, covering topics such as environmental protection, energy efficiency, renewable energy, and energy security. Critics focus on the eighth chapter, "Strengthening Global Alliances," claiming that this chapter urges military actions to remove strategic, political, and economic obstacles to increased U.S. consumption of oil. Others point out that the report contains no such recommendation.

Following the uncertainty immediately after the events of September 11, 2001, Cheney and President Bush were kept in physically distant locations for security reasons. For a period Cheney was not seen in public, remaining in an undisclosed location and communicating with the White House via secure video phones.

On the morning of June 29, 2002, Cheney became only the second man in history to serve as Acting President of the United States under the terms of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, while President Bush was undergoing a colonoscopy. Cheney acted as President from 10:09 UTC that day until Bush resumed control at 13:24 UTC.

Both supporters and opponents of Cheney point to his reputation as a very shrewd and knowledgeable businessman and politician who knows the functions and runnings of the federal government. Opponents however accuse him of supporting decisions that indirectly subsidize the oil industry and major government contractors, and hold that Cheney strongly influenced the decision to use military force in Iraq.

Relationship to Halliburton as Vice President

Cheney resigned as CEO of Halliburton on July 25, 2000, and put all of his corporate shares into a blind trust, except 433,333 stock options worth about $8 million transferred to a charitable trust. As part of his deferred compensation agreements with Halliburton contractually arranged prior to Cheney becoming Vice President, Cheney's public financial disclosure sheets filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics showed he received $162,392 in 2002 and $205,298 in 2001. Upon his nomination as a Vice Presidential candidate, Cheney purchased an insurance policy that would guarantee his deferred payments regardless of the company's performance, removing any conflict of interest. Cheney's net worth, estimated to be between $30 million and $100 million, is largely derived from his post at Halliburton. In the rebuilding of Iraq, Halliburton was granted a $7 billion no-bid contract. It was criticism to this contract by a number of U.S. Senators that led to the infamous Cheney remarks when he said, "go Fuck yourself" to Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy (Democrat) during the U.S. Senate’s annual photo session in late June 2004 [13].

Plans for the future

Since 2001, when asked if he is interested in the Republican presidential nomination, Cheney has said he wishes to retire to private life after his term as Vice President expires. In 2004, he reaffirmed this position strongly on Fox News Sunday, saying, "I will say just as hard as I possibly know how to say... 'If nominated, I will not run,' 'If elected, I will not serve,' or not only no, but 'Hell no,' I've got my plans laid out. I'm going to serve this president for the next four years, and then I'm out of here." Such a categorical rejection of a candidacy is often referred to as a "Sherman Statement" for Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman after his dismissal of presidential considerations in 1884.

However, several political pundits and Washington insiders have publicly expressed the opinion that Cheney will decide to run for President in 2008. On August 9, 2005, famed Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward went on record saying he believed it was "highly likely" that Cheney would seek the White House after Bush's second term expires. [14] He joins former House Speaker Newt Gingrich who expressed his confidence in a Cheney run during a January 2, 2005 interview on C-SPAN's Afterwords. Fred Barnes of FoxNews, Lawrence Kudlow of CNBC, and Tod Lindberg of the Washington Times have also expressed a belief that Cheney will eventually decide to run for President in 2008. Sportsbooks.com, the world's largest online bookmaking site, reported that the odds of a "President Cheney" in 2008 rose from 100:1 in May 2005 to 20:1 in August 2005.

Premature obituary publication

In 2003, Cheney's death was incorrectly announced by CNN when his pre-written obituary (along with those of several other famous figures) was inadvertently published on CNN's web site due to a lapse in password protection.