Beau Rambo, a 1{-year-old cocker spaniel, has a heritage that would make any genealogical name-dropper take notice. His great-great-grandmother was none other than Checkers, the dog immortalized by Richard Nixon. In his 1952 ``Checkers'' speech, the then vice presidential candidate rebutted charges that he illegally accepted gifts from wealthy supporters. He cited the dog, a supporter's gift to his family, as one contribution he would keep. The family pet died in 1964 at age 12. The speech proved an overwhelming success, turning public opinion in favor of the GOP ticket: Dwight Eisenhower, who was running for president, and Nixon. Today, the lineage of the Nixon family pet carries on in Craig Patterson's Beau Rambo, who lives in West Point. Patterson discovered Rambo's lineage when he called the dog's Idaho breeder to obtain the pedigree. ``She said (Rambo) had some show dogs on his dad's side and she rattled off something about Nixon's Checkers,'' he recalled. Nikki Deines, a breeder in Emmett, Idaho, confirmed the lineage reads like this: Checkers Prize Package of Nixon fame begat Otis the Twelfth, who begat Miss Mollie Value, who begat Nikki's Beau Tamara, who begat Rambo.
