[NYTr] All in the family: Cheney and Obama related

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[Oh, dear. Poor Obama. 

Finally a reason to have some sympathy for him,whether it's simply
malicious Rovian rumor-mongering or [shudder] true. -NYTr]

CNN Blogs - Oct 17, 2007
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/

All in the family: Cheney and Obama related

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Go back far enough, the saying goes, and everyone's
related.

But could it be possible that Democratic presidential candidate Barack
Obama and Vice President Dick Cheney share a common ancestor?

Cheney's wife Lynne says yes.

In an interview on MSNBC Tuesday afternoon, Mrs. Cheney said that in
the course of researching her husband's genealogy for her new book,
"Blue Skies, No Fences," she discovered that the two public figures
share an ancestor eight generations ago.

"Think about this," Mrs. Cheney said. "This is such an amazing American
story that one ancestor, a man that came to Maryland, could be
responsible down the family line for lives that have taken such
different and varied paths as Dick's and Barack Obama's."

Mrs. Cheney's spokeswoman Ginny Justice gave CNN's Ed Henry more
details, saying the two unlikely relatives are related through a French
Huguenot named Mareen Duvall. Cheney and Obama are both descendants of
her.

According to Justice, the vice president is related to her through "the
first" Richard Cheney, who came to America in the 1650's. His
granddaughter married Samuel Duvall, son of Mareen Duvall.

But is blood thicker than the partisan waters of Washington? Apparently
not.

Even though Obama is related to her husband, Mrs. Cheney said she is
not supporting the Illinois Democrat's White House bid.

Reacting to the news, Obama's campaign spokesman Bill Burton told CNN's
Dana Bash with tongue in cheek, "Obviously, Dick Cheney is sort of the
black sheep of the family."

But Obama's family ties to the Bush administration don't stop with
Cheney. According to an article in the Chicago Sun-Times last
September, Obama is also an 11th cousin of the president himself. The
two share a 17th century Massachusetts relative.