[Illustration by PADRAIC O’REILLY]
CBS NEWS: Former Vice President Dick Cheney received a heart transplant on Saturday, his office announced. A statement from the former vice president’s office said Cheney is now recovering in the Intensive Care Unit of Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va., outside of Washington. The statement said Cheney had been on the transplant list for 20 months and did not know the identity of the donor. “Although the former Vice President and his family do not know the identity of the donor, they will be forever grateful for this lifesaving gift,” the statement read. MORE
PREVIOUSLY: But for the most part, Mr. Cheney, 69, has put aside his public role as the fiery, combative political figure of the last two years, who seemed to relish every opportunity to engage in verbal jousting with President Obama. With George W. Bush having decided to stay largely silent during Mr. Obama’s tenure, Mr. Cheney embraced the role of public critic, accusing the new, young president of rolling back Bush-era policies and undermining the nation’s security. In 2009, Mr. Cheney and Mr. Obama gave dueling speeches on the same day. Now, however, family members and friends paint a portrait of a man less focused on the day-to-day back-and-forth in Washington and one more interested in documenting his years of service in a memoir and navigating life with his new pump. MORE