West Virginia says "Please, Make Fun..."

“We'd always known about the Cheney family line on my father's side of the family, back to Massachusetts in the 1630s. My grandmother was named Tyler but it turned out she was descended from a Richard Cheney, same last name, who landed in Maryland in the 1650s. So I had Cheneys on both sides of the family -- and we don't even live in West Virginia.You can say those things when you're not running for re-election. But, the fact is ... his mother and my grandmother have a common ancestor descended from Maryland about eight generations ago. We are, in fact, cousins.”

Ah, nothing funnier than a West Virginia inbreeding joke. Dick Cheney tried to get some laughs at the National Press Club on Monday, and I'm sure he did because there's nothing funnier than taking some shots at West Virginia.

On one hand, you have Cheney taking shots at West Virginia for its backhills reputation. On the other hand you get sympathy from Leonard Pitts because West Virginians because we're just poor white people who "have been victims of a con job going back at least as far as the Civil War." I expect such backhanded insults from someone like Pitts but for Cheney to take an unnecessary shot against a state that twice voted from him and George Bush...not good.

I could ramble on about how West Virginia deserves better than pity or ridicule. But what good does it do? We just need to accept we're a target for easy insults and probably always will be. It's just disappointing...especially from someone who should know better.