Thank you for Greg Bean’s column of Jan. 22 which mentioned the feedback Mr. Bean said he received from people who did not like his column bidding farewell to Dick Cheney. (“After Obama’s Inauguration, CheneyWill Be Out in the Cold,” Tri- Town News, Jan. 15).
With regard to the economy, one never knows how kind and considerate one can be until put to the “sales are down … waaaay down and we’re thinking of laying people off” test. Imagine a salesperson carrying a customer’s purchase to their car!
Mr. Bean might want to mention to those people that Mr. Cheney appeared to be an illegal vice president.
In Jones v. Bush, et al., filed November 2000, three voters registered in Texas brought suit to preclude Texas members of electoral college from voting Texas’ 32 electoral votes for Bush and Cheney for president and vice president of the United States on the grounds that it violated the 12th Amendment to the Constitution (ratified 1804) which states in part “The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for president and vice president, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves.”
Bush’s Texas residency was a fact. What was at issue was Dick Cheney’s domicile.
Evidence that was presented in their lawsuit — which was undisputed— included the following evidence: Dick Cheney, since 1996, was a registered voter in Texas, owned and occupied a home in Texas with his wife (but sold it the day before this case was decided), claimed a tax exemption on this property (the Texas tax code does not permit this deduction unless the owner occupies the property as his primary residence), listed the Texas address as their primary residence on federal income tax returns, had a Texas driver’s license, was employed in Dallas (as CEO of Halliburton), his vehicles were registered and located in Texas, and he received his mail in Texas.
The case was dismissed on Dec. 1, 2000, by the U.S. District Court in Dallas for the implausible reason that Dick Cheney allegedly said on July 21, 2000, that it was his intent to move to Wyoming, and some time after that declaration, went to Wyoming and registered to vote.
Of course, he never did move to Wyoming. He went straight to Washington, D.C. The rest is history, an eight-year run of silent antics that caused untold misery, death, torture and shame, from which those affected may never recover.
You know, last year a neighbor told me about her visit to New Orleans, claiming excitedly “Don’t pay any attention to what you’ve heard in the news, New Orleans is just fine, it’s back to what it was.”
Dumbfounded, I said, “You mean people came back to life, loved ones returned intact, property and belongings miraculously restored, jobs never lost, people never displaced? Wow, that’s amazing.”
As Bush once said: “There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.”
So here’s a foolish thought: If Dick Cheney was a constitutionally illegal vice president, does that make all his decisions in that office null and void?
Lynn Petrovich Ocean Township