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Dick Cheney on Drugs

Vice President of the United States under George W. Bush


Two DUI arrests, in 1962 & 1963

When I moved onto the federal payroll, I had to fill out a number of very comprehensive forms. One of them asked about prior arrests, and I listed my two DUI incidents in 1962 and 1963. Apparently this raised no alarms.

[Later,] Rumsfeld called me into his office and asked if it was true I had been arrested twice. I said I had. He asked if I had put the arrests on the original form. I said I had. Rumsfled studied the form closely; "Ok, that's good enough for me."

Five days before the 2000 election, we learned a story was breaking that in 1976, Bush had been arrested for DUI. I was sure the news of the governor's DUI would bring up stories of my own DUIs from nearly 40 years earlier, but that didn't happen because they had already been written about. They were old news. B ut this Bush story, even though it was 24 years old, was now completely new. The late revelation hurt us.

Source: In My Time, by Dick Cheney, p. 51&285-286 , Aug 30, 2011

Was twice convicted of drunk driving charges

Dick Cheney urged Republicans to not be distracted by the controversy surrounding Bush’s [drunk driving arrest]. Cheney was asked about Bush’s character, given the new revelation. “He’s been very forthright about it,” Cheney said. “He came out last night and made a statement about it.”

While in his twenties, Cheney was twice convicted of drunk driving. His campaign has refused to provide any further details of the incidents. An aide said, “This is a 10-year-old news item about a 40-year-old news item.”

Source: Mike Allen and Dan Balz, Washington Post, p. A1 , Nov 4, 2000

Mandatory penalties to fight for a drug-free America