The Extremely Patriotic Bush Twins
Copyright © 2005-2008 Timothy Horrigan
|
Click here to read Jenna & Barbara's gracious January 20, 2009 Wall Street Journal op-ed: they welcomed Malia & Sasha Obama to the White House. The Bush Twins know the White House very well indeed since both their father and their grandfather served as President. They closed by telling the Obama daughters that the now ex-President "is our father, not the sketch in a paper or part of a skit on TV. Many people will think they know him, but they have no idea how he felt the day you were born, the pride he felt on your first day of school, or how much you both love being his daughters. So here is our most important piece of advice: remember who your dad really is.". |
[January
20, 2008] Back in 2005, I created this page after seeing that there
was a demand for pictures of and commentary on the Bush Twins.
(Initially, there was just a single picture of them on a page about
the
theft of the 2004 election.) I am thinking of getting rid of my
Bush Twins material, since they never were very relevant and now that
their dad is no longer President, they are totally irrelevant—
although Jenna has become a
somewhat successful children's book author.
But, instead I will leave it up for a while longer, but in shortened
form.
I also still have four additional Bush Twins-related pages:
And please check out my novel The Forgotten Liars:
The
Extremely Patriotic Bush Twins
Barbara and Jenna Bush are two seemingly likeable young ladies who happen to be Bush II's and Laura Bush's daughters. Barbara is the brunette and Jenna is the blonde. Confusingly, Barbara is the one who doesn't look exactly like her famous grandmother by the same name .
Barbara is the quiet and serious twin, and she was also the one
who hit the jackpot in the college-admissions lottery by landing a
slot at Yale. Jenna is a boisterous fun-loving blonde, and she went
to a school which is significantly farther down the admissions food
chain than Yale, but ironically she is the smarter one. Jenna,
who was the most
laughed-at member of the Bush family, ironically turned out to be the
only Bush (aside from Condoleeza Rice) who has a career in public
life left at the end of her father 's Reign
of Error.
She grew up into a respected author and teacher. Barbara is something
of a mystery woman: according to the The
Wall Street Journal
she is working for a very low-profile organization called the Global
Health Corps (not to be
confused with the world-famous Global
Health Council.)
For some reason it troubled me that Jenna & Barbara were not in the service. Their father's war in Iraq has been going on for almost six years now (and the 9/11 attacks happened way back in 2001.) During these years, neither Jenna nor Barbara have ever been moved to volunteer for the military. Over 4,500 members of their generation (and that's just the official count of US troops only) have lost their lives in Iraq. (Click here for the complete list of fallen troops, courtesy of Icasualties.Org.) Jenna and Barbara are, nevertheless, patriots who have resolutely and consistently supported their father's quest to impose Dick Cheney's and General Betrayus's version of freedom and democracy on the rest of the world (and to protect our oil supply.)
The Twins stayed out of the spotlight during their father's first term in office (aside from a few episodes of underage drinking) and they remained apolitical till the 2004 campaign, which they did actively participate in. On August 31, 2004, the Twins electrified the nation and the whole world with their address to the 2004 Republican National Convention. This speech— which established them as the exemplars of a new generation of American leaders— was instantly recognized as one of the most historic convention speeches of all time— right up there with William Jennings Bryan's "Cross of Gold Speech" or even Newt Gingrich's "Beach Volleyball Speech."
In the fall of 2006, Jenna actually became the subject of conspiracy theories. She was allegedly sent to the remote South American republic of Paraguay to negotiate the Bush family's purchase of a huge ranch which would be her father's sanctuary after he flees the country to avoid prosecution for his crimes. The White House actually admitted that she was in Paraguay, but they claimed she was there to Trick or Treat for Unicef .
In late November 2006, both twins were sighted in Argentina, where they enjoyed a rather bizarre vacation in Buenos Aires. It is not clear exactly what happened, but we do know for certain that one of their Secret Service agents was mugged while cruising the local gay bar district. Even more oddly, a thief managed to steal Barbara's purse and cellphone while they were having dinner. And, in a not overly convincing attempt to dispel rumors that the the US embassy in Buenos Aires had asked the girls to leave the country, the embassy's press office felt compelled to issue a statement that "The Embassy welcomes the visit and has provided close support and cooperation."
We never heard anything more about Jenna's trip to Paraguay, but
her travels to the similarly-named Latin American country of Panama
inspired a book entitled Ana's
Story: A Journey of Hope.
This is a non-fiction young-adult book about a teenaged single mother
with AIDS. Jenna signed a presumably lucrative book contract with
HarperCollins
(which is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also owns FauxNews.)
Jenna later wrote a second children's book, collaborating with her
mother and the
illustrator Denise Brunkus:
Read
All About It!
On August 16, 2007, Jenna announced her engagement to Henry Hager.I got at least 17,500 extra hits (about six months worth of normal traffic) the day the engagement was announced. I found out about this event only after casually looking at my Sitemeter log, which looked like DailyKos's, with hits coming in every second.
Henry Hager is a heroic young patriot who supported the war effort by serving as an aide to Karl Rove before recently going back to grad school. He is a young MBA who made a huge sacrifice by serving under Rove. He could have taken a lucrative job as a consultant or banker, but instead he toiled long hours fighting for freedom, making a humble GS-11 salary (barely even $60,000/year.) Hager was, most noteably, one of the courageous young men and women who toiled beside Rove in the Situation Room of the basement of the White House during the Hurricane Katrina crisis, documenting the errors made by the liberal Democrats in Louisiana.
Henry Chase Hager is one of two generations of Hagers who served Bush II. His father is John Henry Hager, a former tobacco lobbyist who until 2007 served as the Assistant Secretary of Education for Special Education & Rehab Services. He was in charge of (amongst other things) Special Ed testing programs.
If she had chosen to be married at the White House, she would have been the first White House bride since Tricia Nixon. However, she decided to have her wedding at her parents' ranch in Crawford, Texas, on May 10, 2008. The last child of a sitting President to get married was Jenna's aunt Doro Bush, who had a small ceremony at Camp David near the end of Bush I's reign. (That was her second marriage, so the wedding wasn't a big deal, even though second marriages tend to be the happiest.)
Jenna was in the news a lot in the spring of 2008— not because of the wedding, though. Oh no, of course not! Her wedding was a strictly private affair at her parents' ranch.
No, Jenna was in the news
because she and her mother were promoting their new book entitled
Read
All About It!
This is the inspirational story of Tyrone, a little boy who is a math
and science whiz (and presumably tests
well) but who thinks he
hates reading.
See also:
On May 10, 2008, the wedding went off according to plan: it was an ostenstatiously private affair at the Bush Ranch, which required the government to spend millions locking down a wide swathe of south-central Texas for several days— but some nice pictures were released and it did provide a positive respite from the pervasive negativity of Bush II's Presidency.
I have some more random items related to the wedding which are which are available only on the "Jenna Bush Wedding page." The URL for the "Jenna Bush Wedding page." is:
![]() |
|
You might also want to check out my Jenna Bush Wedding Day page: |

The
Twins electrified the nation at the 2004 RNC!
Bush Twin Links:
Interesting September 10, 2001 Houston Chronicle article about Jenna & Barbara's work on the issue of substance abuse. For some unknown reason, the media never followed up on this story!
Text
of their electrifying address before the 2004 Republican
National Convention . (Arguably, this was the greatest
convention speech since William Jennings Bryan's Cross
of Gold speech in 1896.) Click
here to see the video in RealPlayer
format.
Boston.com's "Twinspotting" Page (about their antics during the 2004 RNC.)
A Letter to the Editor (never published) which I wrote in August 2005 about Bush II, World War II & Gulf War II: the Bush Twins' decision not to serve in Gulf War II does get mentioned.
September 26, 2007 HuffingtonPost.com blog entry about Jenna's engagement
September 29. 2007 Washington Post story: "Jenna's Story: A New Author Steps Forth" by Bob Thompson. Jenna wants to talk about the book, but she answers questions about many other topics— even the War in Iraq. About the war, she says, "Nobody wants war, I definitely, and my father definitely doesn't want war. But it's a horribly complicated situation." She goes on to say, "I can say it's devastating... I think everybody can agree on that." And, even though she is not in the military, she make the point that (unlike her sister) she has been involved in non-military public service as an educator.
October 11, 2007 Time Magazine "Ten Questions" column: Jenna fended off the question of why she and Barbara aren't in the military by stating, "there are many ways to serve our country, and I think my skills are better suited for teaching and representing the U.S. in Latin America through UNICEF. I respect the men and women of our country who are over there fighting. It is an unbelievably selfless thing to do. But if people really thought about it, they would know it's not even a practical question."
December 5, 2007 Ellen Show appearance: Jenna phones
home.
May 2008 Vogue Magazine article about her wedding and of course the new book!
May 28, 2008 Ellen Show appearance: Jenna offers Ellen DeGeneres & Porta DeRossi the use of the ranch for their upcoming marriage. Jenna also shows some new pictures from her own wedding.
I have four additional Bush Twins-related pages:
And please check out my novel The Forgotten Liars:
Some other Bush-related pages:
|
|
![]() |
|
You might also want to check out my Jenna Bush Wedding Day page: |