Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-12-13
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

The Last Days of George W. Bush: A Tale of Family Values
Part 22
by Krandall Kraus
2007-04-04

This article shared 3365 times since Wed Apr 4, 2007
facebook twitter google +1 reddit email


This 44-part series began running in WCT Nov. 8. Readers can read all the installments to date at www.windycitymediagroup.com .

From the journal of John 'Jack' Quincy Adams, Chief Secret Service Special Agent in Charge, The White House. Code Name: One.

Part 22. The Dark Nights of Dover

Jack Adams, the Secret Service agent charged with assassinating President George W. Bush and being held for psychiatric evaluation, is telling about a surprise call he got one night from the First Lady.

I hadn't seen Laura to speak with her since our uncomfortable conversation during the Middle East trip. She had been expert at avoiding me and I didn't want to push her. Naturally, it left me feeling at odds with her and with myself. I was afraid I was overstepping my bounds, pushing where I ought to be pulling; after all, my job was to protect and defend, not argue. And I no longer knew for sure what we were talking about when we talked. Were we talking about us—or rather my feelings for her and shades of our distant past—or were we talking politics? Was I angry that the woman I had loved in secret all my life was being held a virtual prisoner by her husband and his family? And if I could do something to free her from their grasp would it be so she could go off and have the private life she always wanted or was it on the condition that she would ride off across the Potomac with me? I ached to get these things settled between us, but there had been no chance since that night in Jerusalem. Every time I went early to her office either she wasn't there or she was busy with her staff and made no attempt to get them to leave us alone for a few minutes. Then one night in early December, right after Thanksgiving, I received a phone call.

Hearing her voice threw me for a moment. Whenever I got a call from her it was usually Noelia or Alison in her press section or her secretary. This was the first time she had called herself. I instantly shifted into 'One' mode.

'Oh, Mrs. Bush, I didn't recognize you,' I said, always aware of being tapped to on my home line. 'What can I do for you?' It was nearly nine o'clock and I was sitting by the fire reading USA Today.

'Jack, are you free this evening?'

'Pardon?'

'I said, are you free this evening? Can you accompany me someplace?' She was speaking in a low voice, almost a whisper.

'Sure, as long as Trail…as long as the president doesn't need me.'

'He's in for the evening. But I have to go someplace and I'd like you to come with me.'

'Absolutely. Shall I come now?'

'No. I'll pick you up on the way. Say in about thirty minutes?'

'I'll be waiting.'

I put on my suit and waited by the bay window. This felt almost nefarious and I couldn't help but wonder if she was involving me in something I would later regret.

Her car—a 'formal' limo rather than one of the stretch limos used for state events—arrived a half hour later accompanied by only one black Service SUV. I couldn't tell if it was a War Wagon, but I doubted it; although for her to go someplace with only one detail car was highly irregular. One of her agents opened the back door for me, a slight breech of protocol, and as I got in he arched his eyebrows and gave me what I interpreted as a knowing grin. I let it go until I had as much information as he had.

She said very little except for small talk until we were away from the city's mercury streetlights and cruising along the parkway where I had spent my snowbound night.

'May I ask where we're going?' I said.

'I want you to see something. I want you to….' She sighed. 'I want you to see what I do in my spare time.'

'If you don't mind my asking, what does the president think you're doing?'

'I told him I was going to visit a sick friend.'

I stifled a chuckle. 'And he believed you?'

'George believes whatever I tell him.' In the dim light of the rear console I could see her turn toward me. 'I never lie, Jack. To anyone. As you will see.'

We rode in silence for a long time after that. We drove through Baltimore, onto the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and into Delaware. In a short while we were in Dover and then I knew where we were headed.

Krandall Kraus has published six books, including the Lambda Literary Award winner It's Never About What It's About, co-authored with his partner Paul Borja. He is the recipient of the 2006 Christopher Isherwood Fellowship in Fiction; his first novel, The President's Son, was a bestseller. A former consultant to the Office of the Vice President, his political thrillers are filled with White House insider details.


This article shared 3365 times since Wed Apr 4, 2007
facebook twitter google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

Lambda Legal Launches "Speak OUT" awareness campaign uplifting trans, nonbinary voices
2024-03-28
--From a press release. VIDEO BELOW - (NEW YORK, NY — March 28, 2024) In advance of Transgender Day of Visibility, Lambda Legal, the nation's oldest and largest legal nonprofit working to achieve full equal rights for LGBTQ people and everyone living with ...


Gay News

Four Chicago Red Stars receive international call-ups
2024-03-28
CHICAGO (March 28, 2024) — Chicago Red Stars Nádia Gomes, Natalia Kuikka, Alyssa Naeher and Mallory Swanson have been tabbed to represent their countries during the April international window. Forwards Gomes and Swanson are set to ...


Gay News

2024 'Nike Basketball Camps with the Chicago Sky' announced
2024-03-28
The Chicago Sky officially announced, in a debut collaboration with Nike Sports Camps, 2024 summer basketball camps for Chicagoland youth. Two camps for boys and girls ages 7-15 will take place June 17-21 and July 8-12 ...


Gay News

Nex Benedict's autopsy report released
2024-03-27
The full autopsy report for Nex Benedict (he/they)—a 16-year-old transgender and Indigenous student from Oklahoma's Owasso High School who died in February a day after a school fight—has been released. The Oklahoma Office of the Chie ...


Gay News

City Lit Executive Artistic Director Brian Pastor talks theater, comics, queerness
2024-03-26
City Lit Theater has announced its programming for the 2024-25 season—which will be the company's 44th. It will also be the first season to be programmed under the leadership of Brian Pastor (they/them), who will assume ...


Gay News

Brown Elephant Returns To Northalsted
2024-03-26
Brown Elephant's Lake View location is moving to Northalsted and already accepting donations. Howard Brown Health, the largest LGBTQ+ health center in the midwest, operates three Brown Elephant resale shops in the Chicagoland area to help ...


Gay News

An interstate trans healthcare crisis: Illinois prepares for influx of people seeking gender-affirming care
2024-03-26
With hard-won rights, such as access to hormone replacement therapy or permission to use one's chosen pronouns in school, breaking down in states across the country, trans residents of all ages are left with a choice: ...


Gay News

Be here, be queer, play polo: Gay Polo League creates safe athletic space for LGBTQ community
2024-03-26
LGBTQ+ athletic clubs aren't too hard to come by, offering a variety of sports such as softball, soccer and more in cities across the country. But LGBTQ+ athletes would be harder pressed to find someplace to ...


Gay News

Planned Parenthood of Illinois expands Orland Park health center
2024-03-26
--From a press release - ORLAND PARK, Ill. - Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL) announces the expansion of its existing Orland Park Health Center at 14470 S. LaGrange Rd., Suite 106. The 1,800-square-foot expansion is projected to increase sexual and reproductive ...


Gay News

The Jeff Awards announces the 50th anniversary awards for non-equity theater
2024-03-26
--From a press release - A complete list of recipients can also be found online in the Non-Equity and News and Events sections at www.jeffawards.org. (March 25, 2024 - Chicago) — Celebrating its 50th anniversary awarding recognition for Non-Equity theater, the ...


Gay News

After 30 Under 30: MAP Executive Director Naomi Goldberg
2024-03-25
NOTE: In this series, Windy City Times will profile some of its past 30 Under 30 honorees. Windy City Times started its 30 Under 30 Awards in 2001, presenting them each year through 2019. This year, ...


Gay News

United Church of Hyde Park hosts LGBTQ+ storytelling event
2024-03-25
About 20 people had gathered around four round tables in the community room of the United Church of Hyde Park, 1448 E. 53rd St., on March 23. They were listening quietly to a man tell the story of how, on a ...


Gay News

Kara Swisher talks truth, power in tech at Chicago Humanities event
2024-03-25
Lesbian author, award-winning journalist and podcast host Kara Swisher spoke about truth and power in the tech industry through the lens of her most recent book, Burn Book: A Tech Love Story, March 21 at First ...


Gay News

Wyoming is latest state to ban gender-affirming care for minors
2024-03-24
On March 22, Wyoming became the latest state to prohibit gender-affirming care for minors, The Hill noted. In doing so, it joined 23 other states that passed laws restricting or banning the treatment. Legislators in both ...


Gay News

SAVOR Easter roundup for 2024
2024-03-24
Easter is a time to celebrate rebirth, spring, life—and brunches. Chicagoland restaurants will be out in full force on Sunday, March 31, offering Easter meals—some with their own twists (including ...


 


Copyright © 2024 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.