Given everything that’s happened so far, I didn’t think anything about this election was going to surprise me. Well… This sounds like something out of a soap opera or National Enquirer-wanna-be filler. What’s next? Fred Thompson and Hillary are brother and sister with Bush giving the “Luke, I’m your father” speech?

Veep’s Wife Says Hubby and Obama Related

Though they may spar across the political aisle, Vice President Dick Cheney is close enough to Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama to call him “cousin.” Eighth cousin, that is.

Lynne Cheney, the vice president’s wife, revealed this tantalizing bit of political trivia during a television interview Tuesday.

She said she uncovered the long-ago ties between the two while researching her ancestry for her latest book, “Blue Skies, No Fences,” a memoir about growing up in Wyoming.

“This is such an amazing American story that one ancestor … could be responsible down the family lines for lives that have taken such different and varied paths as Dick’s and Barack Obama,” Lynne Cheney told MSNBC.

According to her spokeswoman, Sen. Obama, D-Ill., is a descendent of Mareen Duvall. This French Huguenot’s son married the granddaughter of a Richard Cheney, who arrived in Maryland in the late 1650’s from England, said Ginny Justice, a spokeswoman for Lynne Cheney.

The vice president’s full name is Richard B. Cheney.

A spokesman for Obama, who wants to be the first black U.S. president, offered a tongue-in-cheek response. “Every family has a black sheep,” said spokesman Bill Burton.

Lynne Cheney did not reference the ancestral ties between her husband and Obama in the book.



  1. bobbyjoe says:

    To determine an 8th cousin …. one would have to find Great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents in common.

    That’s 512 people for each person in the relationship.

    I could not identify all of my great-grandparents. This analysis
    sounds real fishy. Maybe if you are royalty with many written records
    but before the 20th century the records are very ????.

    IMHO

  2. Improbus says:

    [tin foil hat mode]
    Maybe the secret societies both of these people belong to keep better records than mere temporal authorities.
    [end tin foil hat mode]

  3. bobbo says:

    Eventually, we are all related to one another, what exactly is “amazing” here except to keep the voting public off anything relevent?

  4. Lex says:

    The only thing left in common is that they both have long penises.

  5. Mr. Fusion says:

    When you get out to the eighth cousin bit, I don’t know about calling each other “cuz”.

  6. rollchan says:

    @Lex: indeed. XD~

  7. HisMostHumblyExhaultedSupremeGlobalWarmingMajesty says:

    They should mate to remerge the family tree.

    [Please use TinyURL for your name. – ed.]

  8. green says:

    Mmmmm bloodlines

  9. Sounds The Alarm says:

    I like the title, but I suggest an addition – How about “Blue Skys, or How my Husband Didn’t Bother to Serve in Vietnam”

  10. Li says:

    I would wager that we are all related, if you go back far enough. And I only bet on sure things. 😉

  11. GigG says:

    This has got to make Hillary deliriously happy.

  12. chuck says:

    I’d say it’s far more likely that Cheney’s ancestor owned Obama’s ancestor.

  13. Sounds The Alarm says:

    #11

    Doesn’t the Bush connection make you feel just a little bit icky?

  14. Gregory says:

    Like #1 – I call shenanigans.

    Records before 1837 are patchy at best, and that’s in the UK, in the US it’s worse. The likelyhood of being able to find this out is very slim to say the least.

    Until I see the proof (and where they obtained the sources) I’m very dubious. Not that it isn’t possible (for example on a BBC show they did a program that determined that about 25 generations back two english guys – one’s family originally from china, one from Nigeria – had a common male ancestor) I’m just suspicious of the source…

  15. JimR says:

    I’ve always thought they looked alike.

  16. Jennifer says:

    It’s really not that crazy. I can pretty reliably date branches of my own family back seven or eight generations, and my husband’s family history is reliable to the sixteenth century.

  17. Dwight E. Howell says:

    What I’ve noticed is that if you have money and are a somebody then the records often do exist even if people have to make them up. If you were a nobody then the records often don’t exist or not to the degree that you can be sure.

    The kicker is that if your family is old money then they got recorded a lot of places in many different records and some of these may well still be around. Please note that we are talking old money here. I’d bet they can run it down.

  18. Matt Garrett says:

    Not surprising. Ronald Reagan and Princess Di were cousins.

  19. The Monster's Lawyer says:

    Cheney:
    1. Loves fried chicken
    2. Loves watermelon
    3. Calls his female aides “shorties”
    4. Likes to show his bling to Congress
    5. Uses Rap style when making public statements/denials
    6. His wife has a lot of junk in her trunk
    7. Is confused on Father’s Day
    8. Is plagued with blood pressure ailments, ala Fred Sanford.
    9. Talks with an ethnic slur and gangsta lean.
    10. Curb feelers on his Lexus

    Obama:
    1. Plays chess
    2. White bread only with mayonaise
    3. Speaks with perfect diction
    4. Favorite aides are Buffy and Kent
    5. Played laCrosse in college
    6. Thinking of converting to Mormonism
    7. Thinks March Madness is a sale at J.C Penneys
    8. Believes Pat Boone is king not Elvis
    9. Does not trust persons of color

    How could these guys be related???

  20. tallwookie says:

    thats such complete shit….

    I am related to everyone who reads this blog. You just have to go back far enough

    this is not news

  21. Phillep says:

    13 – This came out about a year ago, if you want to research the link. Yes, Obama’s relevant ancestor was supposed to have been a slave, but that may have just been a snide remark by a childish fool looking for something nasty to say about Cheney.

  22. Willie J. Bush,Jr. says:

    the U.S. Government is the most discriminating and prejudice organization known to man and they don’t always take care of their people in time of need! Plus, like some attorneys, they lie, steal and cheat!

  23. meetsy says:

    wow maybe they can make a tv sitcom about this….a remake of that Patty Duke show?
    The big question …are they kissin’cousins?

  24. Mr. Fusion says:

    You mean, there is more than a remote possibility I’m related to James Hill or the Confederate Traitor?

    AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH !!!!!

  25. Phillep says:

    25 – You are obviously an ignorant fool. People like you are exactly why the “conservatives” accuse the “liberals” of hating America. Try reading up on actual, instead of made up, mass murder by government:

    http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/

  26. Joshua says:

    I saw this story the other day….seems the experts were asked to find out if it was true by NBC….I’m betting they hoped good old Lynne was lying….lol….turns out she was right. Among other famous people they both are related to Robert Duvall the actor from the same common ancestor.

    I have 2 crazy Aunts(actually several more than 2) who are deeply into the geneology thing. The one from Mom’s family has found that we are related to Daniel Boone and Chief Tecumsah of a tribe in Ohio and Kentucky(I think). The Aunt from my Dad’s family found we are directly decended from Rutherford B. Hayes and both Harrison’s and Peter Styvasent(sp) who bought Manhatten Island from the Indians. That buying cheap from Indians thing seems to run in my Dad’s family…..our ranch was bought from the Indians around Phoenix in 1887 by my Great-Grandfather. 🙂

  27. vjee says:

    Of course Lynn announced it. They found it when the current administration and Republicans were doing a thorough background check of Obama. This find had nothing to do with Lynne Cheney writing a book. If you believe that—then I have an Island on Manhatten to sell you. Also No surprise folks…they couldn’t let Obama’s team find out that info and make that announcement. If we opened up everybody’s genealogical backgrounds in this country in particular–there would be numerous black sheep in the most interesting families. I think the Thurmonds would agree!


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