Hightower Lowdown

FATIGUES? Did you take catch the political coming out of Jenna and Barbara, George W's 22-year-old twin daughters, who have long been kept away from the political glare? Just graduated from college, they have been brought into the limelight by the Bush political campaign debuting in a photo spread and puff piece that ran in Vogue. They looked splendiferous, beautifully made up and swathed in glamorous designer gowns— one by Oscar de la Renta, the other by Calvin Klein. No telling how many silk worms toiled to make this spread possible.

But—tacky me—I couldn't help thinking as I viewed the photos: Why aren't they in fatigues and Kevlar vests, like other women and men their age?

Jenna and Barbara announced that they would be joining their daddy's election campaign, but I had to ask myself: Why aren't they joining their daddy's war?

After all, he says that his war in Iraq is absolutely essential to our national security, worth the 1000 deaths of US troops, the mutilations and serious illnesses of thousands more, the tens of thousands of civilian casualties, and the illegal conscription of tens of thousands of Americans forced to stay in this disastrous war beyond their tour of duty.

So, if daddy's war is worth the sacrifice of America's workaday families—why is it not worth the enlistment of his military-age family?

Maybe it's genetic. After all, George himself was a "ferocious war hawk" who used family connections to keep himself 8,000 miles from Vietnam.