BREAKING: CHENEY HAS A FUNNY DISEASE

Hotline has an excerpt from Vanity Fair’s June Cheney piece, and it’s an interesting read for cardiologists:

The extent of his atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries, which, if it extends beyond the heart to the brain, can cause hard-to-recognize changes in cognition) is unknown. Bypass surgery itself has long been associated with subtle changes in neurological function. At age 65, Cheney is easily 30 or more pounds overweight, seems to have slacked off on what was once a more rigorous diet, and appears to suffer from recurrent bouts of gout. At a roundtable lunch with reporters a couple of years ago, two who were present say, he cut his buffalo steak in bite-size pieces the moment it arrived, then proceeded to salt each side of each piece.”

First off, gout is an awesome disease for a Vice President to have. Totally a 19th Century sort of disease. And according to this weird and poorly sourced site, Martin van Buren, William Howard Taft, and Grover Cleveland are some of our noted Presidential Gout sufferers. Fine company for a student of history such as our VPOTUS. What we’re wondering: is this the reason for the rift ‘tween Team Bush and Team Cheney? Bush is a health nut of the “firing fat people” variety, and his exercise absolutism may be the only amateur pseudo-Freudian motivation stronger than his Cheney/Rumsfeld surrogate father need.

Which each shake of salt, Cheney dooms his staff further. Oh, and his heart. But Vice President Chris Penn has more important things to worry about than that.

Vanity Fair on Cheney: His Health [Hotline]
Medical History of U.S. Presidents

READ MORE: dick cheney, exercise, george w. bush, gout, grover cleveland, health, martin van buren, team bush, team cheney, william howard taft

Gossip Roundup: Vice-Presidential Gout?

• Inside the Beltway: Gout-sufferer is “convinced” that Cheney has “the gout” too… Yesterday the presidential motorcade stopped at traffic lights and obeyed the speed limit. [WT]
• Lloyd Grove’s Lowdown: Gore and Ralph Nader are on good terms; both are attending the Sundance Film Festival. [NYDN]

READ MORE: Personalities, al gore, dick cheney, george w. bush, gout, ralph nader