Bet you didn't know George W. and Laura Bush paid a secret visit to the wounded and aggrieved families at Fort Hood, did you? They did. The day after it happened. And stayed for hours.
Fox News reported this briefly. AP covered it with this cursory report:
The Bushes made their private visit to Fort Hood's Darnall Army Medical Center on Friday night. Bush spokesman David Sherzer said in an e-mail that the couple thanked Fort Hood's military leaders and hospital staff for the "amazing care they are providing."No one else did... almost no one. Hillbuzz, a Chicago-based gay political site set up last year to support the presidential candidacy of Hillary Clinton, wrote a "Thank You" to former President George W. Bush and his wife for their visit to the troops. It is inspiring - the kind of thing we should see much more often, frankly. I recommend you read it. Unlike the contempt and dismissive hatred from the leftist sages of the hypocritical Fourth Estate.
It was all the more amazing considering the legacy of this group. For example, they went to Tallahassee, Florida in 2000:
...screaming and yelling like crazy people, demanding justice and fairness and the unalienable right for all votes to count... Oh, how we RAILED against Bush in 2000...And spouted all the routine Leftist tripe throughout his presidency:
...how we RAILED against the surge in support Bush received post-9/11 when he went to Ground Zero and stood there with his bullhorn in the ruins on that hideous day...
We were convinced that ANYONE who was president would have done what Bush did, and would have set that right tone of leadership in the wake of that disaster. President Gore, President Perot, President Nader, you name it. ANYONE, we assumed, would have filled that role perfectly...
There was a spell when we refused to even refer to Bush as the president, instead calling him “Dracula”...
But these guys had their moment of truth:The VJs at Sidetrack [their gay bar hangout] whipped up compilation tapes of Bush tripping on stairs, flubbing lines in his speeches, dropping things, taking a wrong turn and trying to open a locked door, etc. All the things that any one of us does in the course of a week, or a day, but are mercifully never recorded doing ... And the nastiness and hate that welled up in the crowd and lasered in on Bush was palpable and frightening, if not particularly shocking, considering where we were...
It was ugly, in a world where not a frosted-tipped hair’s ever out of place and awning over youth and beauty is the order of the day; it was cruel and clumsy here sensitivity and nuanced expression are normally prized; it was unbridled and irrational hellfire...
Hello pot? This is kettle, welcome to fabulous — and to the Jekyl meets Hyde cocktail of Bush hate and showtunes at Sidetrack on a Monday in Boystown, where we very much realized we didn’t know where we belong anymore.
Because, as the Bush Administration ends, so too ends our days of believing Democrats are always good, Republicans are always evil, and gay men have a monopoly (or even firm handle) on what’s witty and clever...Wow!One of the reasons it’s been so hard to put together our thoughts on Bush as he leaves office is because, honestly, we feel badly about the way we’ve treated him, about the things we’ve said about him, all these years.
Because George W. Bush is a decent man with a servant’s heart who did the best damn job he could. He kept us safe for seven years. He stood up to the bullies and terrorists and scoundrels of the world and said with Texas gumption and flare that America under his watch would kowtow to NO ONE.
And, after Clinton suspended her presidential bid in June, we all found ourselves in uncharted territory because we never believed Obama would be a good president, we still don’t trust him, and decided to support a Republican for the first time in our lives. If we thought the hatred and nastiness aimed at us during the primaries when we supported Hillary over Obama was bad, we certainly didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into when we backed McCain/Palin.
But, in a strange and sick way, all the hate flung at us by the Obama trolls just emboldened us more. Everyone who told us to shut up just made us want to write and post more. It was hard to be a Democrat supporting a Republican. We alienated a lot of lifelong partisan friends, and struggled to break free of that partisan thinking ourselves. It was tough, but we knew in our heart what we were doing was right. We believed in McCain/Palin, and saw them as the next best ticket for America, after Clinton was out of the race.
And so we worked as hard for them as we did for Hillary Clinton — and in the process, we acquired a new respect for and understanding of Republicans we never had before. Never again will we walk through life with partisan blinders on. Never again will we call Republicans ugly names or automatically hate people just because they have an (R) after their name. Never again will we sit back while good, qualified, hard-working female candidates of either party are ripped apart by the media (in the form of vile pigs like Russert, Olbermann, or Matthews).
Vile pigs... and coming from some of their own! Ouch. Ironically, their tribute to outgoing President George W. Bush quoted above is one of the most moving, maybe the most moving tribute I have ever read to the man. I don't agree with everything said, but that is to be expected.
To support Hillary requires a belief in leftist ideals, and it is almost seen as a duty by gays to sign onto that agenda and all the venom and personal attacks that go with it. But I suspect that Hillbuzz's days as liberals are numbered. It appears this epiphany helped these people discover that -- like most of us who have seen through the left's misinformed ideology and intimidation tactics -- perhaps they weren't so liberal after all.
Read their FAQS. Great answers you won't hear from most liberals, like:
Q: How can you support both Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin at the same time?
A: And we say back, how can you have two favorite teachers in different subjects…or like two different football teams…or drink Coke and Pepsi? Last time we checked, this is still America, and it does not have to always be an Us v. Them world, no matter what the MSM and Liberals try to convince you.
By their own admission, these people remain "lifelong democrats." But their willingness to see through their own dogmatic partisanship and proudly recognize some of the good things George W. Bush did as president marks them as rare liberals indeed - both intellectually principled and courageous.
Keep speaking truth to power, Hillbuzz.
Bush and firefighter Bob Beckwith (AP Photo by Doug Mills)
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