In 2000, at 3am in the morning an ambulance arrived at Dick Cheney's home in McLean, Virginia; the Republican Vice Presidential nominee (pictured) was suffering from acute chest pains and was rushed to George Washington University for emergency heart treatment.Cheney's Last Stonewall

The following afternoon, George W. Bush would issue a press release from his Crawford, Texas Ranch in which the Republican Presidential nominee announced that nothing was seriously wrong with his running mate's health - Cheney had not suffered his fourth heart attack.

As the chad and vote counting continued in Florida, it would shortly afterwards emerge that not only had Cheney suffered a heart attack, he had tragically died during the course of an angioplasty, a preventative medical procedure in which a small balloon-tipped wire is inserted into a clogged heart artery to open it.

The following morning, Bill Safire wrote in his New York Times column ~ "Throughout the campaign, Cheney has ducked detailed questions about his heart disease. His blood pressure and daily medications were not revealed. We now know that our toleration of his brush-offs was a mistake".

The time for brush-offs and stonewalling very much over, a scandal quickly ensued, in which a number of previously undisclosed secrets emerged about the Republican candidacy.

• Unambigious evidence of draft-dodging throughout the 1960s
• Multiple Driving Whilst Intoxication (DWI) Police Charges
• Sharp business practices particularly Halliburtons $34bn asbestos exposure and Texas Ranger's illegal tax breaks
• Dirty political tactics during the primary campaign against John McCain.

Inside of three weeks, the United States Supreme Court would decide the Bush v. Gore case. The winner of a popular majority, if not necessarily the electoral college, the sitting Vice President would receive the unexpected support of a wave of national anger threatening to engulf the Bush II Presidency even before W took office.