For His Cold, Cheney Is ‘Taking the Day Easy’

When you get a cold, the usual doctor’s orders are to get plenty of rest and drink plenty of fluids.

And that’s just what Vice President Dick Cheney was doing -- “kind of taking the day easy” -- his wife, Lynne, said Sunday on CNN’s “Late Edition.”

Cheney, 63, complained of shortness of breath Saturday after returning to Washington from a hunting trip to South Dakota. Because of his history of heart disease -- he has had four heart attacks and has a pacemaker to control any episodes of an irregular heartbeat -- his doctors sent him to George Washington University Medical Center for tests.

What they found, Lynne Cheney said, was that her husband had a “bad cold,” which was passed around her family during the campaign. “Lots of people get sick on the campaign plane,” she said. “Our whole family had a pretty bad cough ... [but] Dick didn’t get it until after the campaign was over.”

While Cheney is, according to his wife, “doing everything you’re supposed to be doing when you have a cold,” there’s one part of most doctors’ advice that he’s apparently ignoring.

To avoid spreading germs, the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that employees stay home when they are sick.

But like many Americans with sniffles and coughs, the vice president is going to “go to work tomorrow,” Lynne Cheney said.