Cheney Makes Incest Joke About West Virginians

***UPDATE*** Akers reports that Cheney has now apologized for his West Virginia incest joke:

Vice President Dick Cheney has apologized through his spokeswoman for making an offhand joke during a speech at the National Press Club Monday stereotyping West Virginia as a state prone to incest.

Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride tells us, "The Vice President's offhand comment was not meant to hurt anyone. On reflection, he concluded that it was an inappropriate attempt at humor that he should not have made. The Vice President apologizes to the people of West Virginia for the inappropriate remark."

Mary Ann Akers of the Washington Post asks if West Virginia was just handed to the Democrats when Dick Cheney made an incest joke at West Virginians' expense:

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.

Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia was not amused:

"That a man who has ascended to the seat of Vice President of the United States would openly display such contempt and astounding ignorance toward his own countrymen is an insult to all Americans. Now that he or the Administration he represents no longer needs their vote, Mr. Cheney apparently feels that he is now free to mock and belittle the people of West Virginia. With his trademark arrogance, the Vice President even added 'You can say those things when you're not running for re-election.'"

"This pitiful comment is not entirely surprising when you consider the source. Vice President Cheney's words reflect the attitude of an administration and a party that says what they must to get elected and then turns their backs on those they promised to represent."

Comments

[Donnat]

After watching videos snippets of West Virginian voters on John Stewart, this is one thing I can actually agree with Cheney about.

[carissaad]

Please remember that the snippets are used to get your attention and the average person with common sense is not going to do that. Not all of us are like what you saw on the Daily Show. I would never vote for or against someone based solely on their race and/or gender.

[Raymondf]

Chaney can't offend West Virginians, we're thick skined and can take it.

[richardgordon]

Oh come on! People get far too sensitive about such things. Its just a silly joke.

[FredOCal]

It's no more silly than any other "joke" that perpetuates a false stereotype. I personally find the behavior abhorrent; even Steven Colbert, whom I love to watch made several southern incest jokes last week. I think that many people actually believe the southern incest BS, and that is why this "joke" has such play. No wonder we're considered so elitist up north! Unfortunately for many people in the "red states", they fail to realize that members of both parties are just as elite as the "liberals" who are so often demonized in this regard.

[PDXer]

Dick:

From Slate:

""It's true that, through the 19th century, transportation networks developed slowly in the rugged, westernmost portion of Virginia (incorporated as West Virginia in 1863). The area was never entirely cut off, but many people lived in remote "closed communities" with little incoming or outgoing migration. Research on intrafamilial marriage in such enclaves is slim. In 1980, anthropologist Robert Tincher published a study titled "Night Comes to the Chromosomes: Inbreeding and Population Genetics in Southern Appalachia," based on 140 years' worth of marriage records. He concluded that "inbreeding levels in Appalachia … [are neither] unique [n]or particularly common to the region, when compared with those reported for populations elsewhere or at earlier periods in American history.""

Dick.

[PDXer]

Citation:

http://www.slate.com/id/2192830/

[SharonB]

He said something very rude and mean. He wants forgiveness now.

So??????????

[dana94591]

There is nothing like aligning with the mainstream voters!!!!

[BethStuart]

I've always suspected that the Republicans regard with contempt the people they've fooled into voting for them. Cheney's incest remark confirms it.

I'm reminded of Jack Abramoff, the Republican lobbyist and power broker. I think he was the one who described his American Indian clients as monkeys, troglodytes and morons.

[dana94591]

Talk about elitist!!

[meanguy]

so, BethStuart, by YOUR logic, obama's dismissal of his grandmother as a 'typical white person' must confirm the suspicion of many that obama holds whites in contempt..­.it was a STUPID JOKE...wit­h the far-left, it seems that the sense of humor is the first thing to go...

[rgblue]

Ain't them republicans classy!

[merle7]

THAT'S GOOD HE MADE THIS JOKE NOT THAT IT IS GOING TO MATTER BECAUSE THEY WILL VOTE REPUBLICAN ANYWAY JUST GOES TO SHOW YOU HOW MUCH WV AND KY KNOWS ABOUT ELECTING A PRESIDENT.

[StopTheBark]

As a Democratic West Virginian, I feel obliged to say that I've never slept in a shack/hut (or with a relative). I live within an hour's drive of a snake-handling church and have never (and will never) set foot inside one. I'm ashamed of the 25% of WV exit poll respondents who admitted to voting against Obama because of his race and am also ashamed of the immature responses I've read here regarding WV. If I were to display a Confederate license plate on my car (which I don't), it would be because I'm the great-grandson of a Confederate army officer; not because of racial hatred (I'm an Obama supporter). Cheney's comments could just as easily (and wrongly) been applied to any of the fifty states; all Americans should be offended by such comments.

[klo]

Thank you.

[rgblue]

Well put. I hope your attitude spreads in VW, and fast.
Perhaps if that 25% chewed on the disdain and arrogance behind Cheney's remark, they would understand how hurtful, useless and inappropriate racism is.

[Flick08]

Did anyone catch Morning Joe this morning? Buchanan was surprisingly quiet and even managed a mild chuckle.

Quite different from the outraged Buchanan who was raking Obama over the coals for being elitist and who even took Chris Mathews to task over daring to speak ill of the good, hard-working white people of West Virginia.

[uheardme]

Imagine that.

[Flick08]

Mean? You bet your a** it's mean. UN-PC? You bet your a** it's un-pc Funny? You bet your a** it's funny. I know it's mean but the little meanie inside of me thinks it's funny as heck especially after all of the racially charged things those WVirginians said after their Dem. primary. Apparently Obama isn't the only elitist. Cousin Dick and the Rethugicans are too.

[ManofReason]

Imagine if Sen. Obama would have said this and the firestorm that it would have created.

Wow, these people voted for BushCheney. Talk about playing them for fools. Use them and sh*t all over them.

[meanguy]

if obama had said it, his cult would have merely shouted 'amen'...a­nd the media would have swooned

[hmmmmm]

Attention, West Virginians. . . .

If you vote Republican again this Novemenber, I will join in the joke-making.

[gnostic19]

that's funny

[continental]

McCain will probably get the vast majority of the West Virginia vote in November anyway.

[Gordon]

I have seen Obama supporters saying far worse on this very site.

[Syco]

you left out clinton supporters, republicans, anyone who doesn't live there

[Suthngal]

Liar!