Cheney apologizes for inbreeding joke

Falstaff

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Vice President Dick Cheney apologized Monday for what his spokeswoman called “an inappropriate attempt at humor” that implied that inbreeding is common among West Virginians, a remark that elicited outrage from the state’s senior senator.

Asked about a search of his family tree that found he is a distant relative of Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential front-runner, the vice president said the Cheney line on his father’s side of the family dates to 1630’s, and a Cheney family line on his mother’s side dates to the 1650’s.

“So, I had Cheneys on both sides of the family — and we don’t even live in West Virginia,” Cheney cracked. After pausing for laughter from the crowd, Cheney added, “You can say those things when you’re not running for re-election.”

Afterward, West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd blasted Cheney in a written statement, saying the comments “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.”

Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride said later that the “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,” she said.

I think the funniest spin yet is that when a local W. Virginia native was also characterized as being illiterate, that offense was also taken as well being that the "both my parents waz married before I was bornt!", he replied..LOL
For some reason because of a particuler accent or vernaculer that is use, people from the Appalacian regions of the United States are seen as backward or mentally handicapped..LOL
I suppose that is like people from certain parts of the UK as well, ROFL.

Its unfair...but it is true eh?

Al_Vampyre

People need to get over themselves, there are stereotypes about every racial or community group I can think of.

Irish stupidity jokes are as old as the hills, do I care? Nope I don't, should I care? Nope I don't think I should, besides the residents of Ireland tell stupidity jokes about people from County Cork, and I'm damn sure that the residents of County Cork tell stupidity jokes about some little village in Cork somewhere called 'Ballynastupid' or something similar.

Are they offensive (the jokes...not people from Ballynastupid!)? No they are not, unless you're an oversensitive little snowflake who thinks that the world outside their bubble is a cosy, fluffy place where everyone is nice to everyone else, nobody ever loses (and therefore by definition nobody ever wins either) and that we all pick daisys to make daisy chains and skip around in sunlit fields everyday.