Rare inside look
Thought you knew everything about Vice President Dick Cheney? Think again. In Stephen F. Hayes’ new biography — “Cheney: The Untold Story of America’s Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President” — we learn a few more interesting nuggets about America’s favorite hunting partner.
» He once confused Jessica Simpson with Jessica Lynch. Hayes details how, when the vice president
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threw out the first pitch before a 2003 game between the Cincinnati Reds and Chicago Cubs, Cheney was first informed that “Nick Lachey — a native of Cincinnati — would sing the national anthem before the game and would be accompanied by his girlfriend, Jessica Simpson. Cheney thought Simpson’s name sounded familiar. He asked his staff: ‘Is that the soldier who was captured in Iraq?’ ” (That would be Jessica Lynch).
» Don’t tell the veep that you’re hung over. In 2004, Cheney approached deputy press secretary Randy DeCleene during a cookout at the vice president’s residence at the Naval Observatory. He asked DeCleene, “How was your birthday?”
“I think today is the first day that I’m not hung over,” DeCleene responded. “After a split second of awkward silence,” Hayes writes, “Cheney offered a sympathetic grin and walked away. ‘I was mortified,’ DeCleene says. ‘I spent the next two days wondering why the hell I told the vice president of the UnitedStates that I was hung over.’ ”
» Cheney almost took the must unlikeliest of jobs. We know that Cheney is not a huge fan of the news media, and his politics couldn’t be more different than those of Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass. And yet, in 1969, Cheney landed “a coveted position” as deputy press secretary for Kennedy. “I don’t think Kennedy realizes it to this day,” Cheney says.
Ultimately, Cheney kept working in the office of Rep. Bill Steiger, a Wisconsin Republican. Cheney jokes: “Someplace in the annals of the American Political Science Association, there’s paperwork showing that I worked for Ted Kennedy.”
