Cheney Apolgizes For Joke Mocking West Virginia

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Vice President Dick Cheney apologized on Monday through a spokesman after furor erupted from his joke implying inbreeding was practiced in the West Virginia.

Cheney had been asked during the Gerald R. Ford Journalism Awards at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. about reports that he was distantly related to Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL).

"Well, that's true. We are, in fact, distantly related," Cheney said, according to a White House transcript. "And we haven't talked about a family reunion; I have no objections. I'm not sure Senator Obama is up for it, at least not before November."

"We'd always known about the Cheney family line on my father's side of the family, back to Massachusetts in the 1630s," he continued. "My grandmother was named Tyler, but it turned out she was descended from a Richard Cheney, same last name."

"So I had Cheneys on both sides of the family. And we don't even live in West Virginia," the Vice President then said to laughter from the audience. "You can say those things when you're not running for reelection."

The joke did not sit well with West Virginia officials, including Sens. Robert Byrd (D-WV) and Jay Rockefeller (D-WV). Gov. Joe Manchin said it was unbelievable that "any vice president of the United States... would make such a derogatory statement... about any state."

"West Virginia is home to some of the most patriotic people in the nation and our sons and daughters have answered the call to duty every time a president has needed their service," Manchin added, according to the statement on his website. "They deserve better from the vice president, and so I would simply ask for his apology."

Cheney's spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride issued a statement to the AP the same day saying, "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."