But there’s no doubt now that the leftist/feminist machine has moved beyond feelings of betrayal into full-on attack mode, determined to pound the Dallas anti-cancer group into submission for its thought crimes. More specifically, they’re calling for Nancy Brinker’s head. The bottom line on all this: woe to anyone with the temerity to question the “enlightened” orthodoxy when it comes to the abortion issue. You will be punished.

Was replaced by this ad:

Meanwhile Nancy Brinker posted a YouTube defense of the Komen Foundation’s policy change. Though, of course, she doesn’t say a word about Planned Parenthood:

The new director is married, by the way, to the beautiful, Houston-reared actress/entrepreneur Jacqueline Buckingham Anderson, who’s likely to give Anna-Sophia a run for her money as a head-turner on the social circuit. Just now Jacqueline — who literally does hail from central casting — is said to be overseeing the building of a new home for the Andersons in Preston Hollow. (She’s had practice at such things, having “redecorated” the couple’s 12,000-square-foot, museum-provided residence in Indy with buying trips to California and Europe, according to the NYT). According to John Eagle, president of the DMA board, she may eventually start her own business here putting art into public or corporate spaces like hospitals.

George W. Bush and Mike McKool

Dallas’s Belo Mansion may have been a funeral home for 50 years, even hosting the funeral of Clyde Barrow back in the ’30s. But Friday night the old joint was anything but a dead zone, as roughly 1,000 people turned up for a raucous holiday shindig there marking the 20th anniversary of McKool Smith, an IP/commercial litigation law firm.

Think casino games. Exotically clad drink servers (one, pictured after the “jump,” wore a steel “skirt” holding dozens of champagne flutes). Plus multiple live bands — including a group (called Vocal Trash) at the valet entrance that sang and banged out tunes like Footloose using garbage-can lids and drums made out of empty water-cooler bottles.

The Dallas-based firm’s Mike McKool blew out all the stops for this year’s annual holiday party, no doubt. Example: Lawyers from the firm’s other six U.S. offices, including from its newest outpost in L.A., were flown in and put up at a local hotel (presumably not a Super 8). McKool also went above and beyond on the season’s giving side, presenting not one but two $100,000 checks to nonprofit groups during the evening.

Dallas’s Vogel Alcove snagged one of the checks. The other went to Barbara Pierce Bush’s Global Health Corps. The daughter of George W. and Laura Bush was there to accept the dough in person, while her parents sat watching at a table nearby.

The 2011 economy may be continuing to struggle in many ways. If the McKool Smith bash was any indication, though, it’s been a stupendous year for the lawyers. (Photos by Jeanne Prejean)

Champagne lady

“What the community did with the [Sixth Floor Museum] was fantastic,” Shriver (pictured in photo by Jeanne Prejean) went on.  “I took my daughter and my mom there a couple of years before she died. She was really moved by it. … [The assassination] was not the city’s fault … just as I’m not responsible if one of my family members … is a drug addict; that’s not a reflection on me. Nobody in my family has ever spoken in anything but a loving way about the people of Dallas.”

Shriver, who was in town raising money for his Best Buddies nonprofit for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, has often been mentioned as a potential Democratic candidate for governor of Florida, where he lives. He said he prays every day and is “open” to the possibility of running in 2014, if that turns out to be God’s plan for him.

The Houston-born, longtime resident of San Antonio (pictured) was in Dallas Saturday to play a private fundraising party for Dallas’ Museum of Biblical Art. During the party the art museum unveiled a series of 14 planned, life-sized religious sculptures by artist Gib Singleton. Bush said the backyard bash for 275 guests–held at the spectacular, Desco Drive mansion of charity benefactor Faye Briggs–was “probably the biggest private party I ever worked, of this stature. … This is a pretty high-class soiree.” Read more in the Q&A with Bush that follows.

FrontBurner: How did you happen to play this party?

Johnny Bush: Gib did a sculpture of “Whiskey River,” and it was presented to me in Dallas about four or five years ago. It doesn’t look like me–it’s not supposed to–it’s a cowboy with a guitar. I have it in my den. It’s about 24-inches high.

Have you previously been associated with the biblical art museum?

Yes, with Paul Zuger [an art-gallery owner who represents Singleton]. I met him in Denver, and worked for him in Santa Fe. And his good friend, [art patron] Dr. Wayne Yakes, is a good friend of mine. [Coughs.] It’s cold out there! I can’t feel the strings. I came down with a cold last night.

I promise to keep this short. How did you come to write “Whiskey River”?

I’d just signed with RCA, at the time the largest record company in the world. My new producer there was Jerry Bradley, the son of Owen Bradley. He said, ‘Well, what we gotta do now, Johnny, is for you to write a song.’ I said, ‘I was never known to be a songwriter. Of all the songwriters in Nashville, like Willie Nelson and Hank Cochran and Harlan Howard and Bill Anderson, you want me to write a song?’ He says, ‘Yeah.’ Well, the ball was in my court. So goin’ back home [to San Antonio] from Nashville for the disc jockey convention that year, we had a date in Texarkana, Texas, coming back. And on the way back home I woke up with the idea and wrote that song.

You just woke up with it?

Well, I was kind of forced to do it. Usually a writer has to be inspired first. If that was an inspiration, it was a forced one! When I got back to San Antonio, I called Willie and sang it to him on the phone and he liked it. To me, he’s the greatest songwriter of our time. He says, ‘It’s great.’ I said, ‘It only has one verse and one chorus.’ Usually a song has more than one verse. He said, ‘Well, you’ve already said what you needed to say. Just turn it around and say it again.’ So I did. And I had a No. 1 song with it, and I put it with his publishing company. Since that time, he’s recorded it about 27 times. So he must like it.

Has it been lucrative for you?

Oh yes, very. Very. Very.

How many days a year are you out on the road, playing dates?

Not as much as I did in the ’60s. And not like Willie, of course. But, enough. Probably 100, 150 days a year. I’m 77 years old, and everything’s paid for. So if the money’s right, we go. And if it’s not, we don’t go.

What do you think about the contemporary country music scene?

The new country? I’m trying to keep a positive point. I think it’s pretty obvious, the big change. There’s no traditional country out there anymore. And true country music is about real-life situations. And, that being said, that’s why the divorce rate is 50 percent. So half of that, somebody’s hurtin.’ The new producers in Nashville have tied the songwriters’ hands. You can’t say anything bad about the woman. You can’t talk about drinking anymore. But that’s life, you know. So when they start writin’ and recording things like, ‘She thinks my tractor’s sexy,’ you’ve lost me.

But you’re still upholding the tradition.

Yeah. I’ve got two new CDs out now. I still record traditional country music, and I will as long as I’m able to breathe.

So here’s where you can do good. The Deep Ellum Urban Garden group needs about $25,000 in order to transform the lot into a garden. They have set the campaign to tilt at $10,000. Yesterday, the campaign was around $4,700. The people at Crowdtilt gave of their own money and did a match campaign. Today, it’s at $6,795. Make yourself feel better, donate a few dollars. And then get your friends to donate a few dollars. See, don’t you feel a little better?