Bush Jr. Avoids Dedication of 9/11 Memorial Museum

.
Hmm, I wonder if his conscience is starting to get the best of him.?..
~Jordon
_______________
Since his presidency ended, Bush has steered clear of the spotlight, and has been content to hang out in Texas and paint.
Former President George W. Bush bypassed the opening ceremonies at the Sept. 11 Memorial because of the flood of emotions it would cause.
Remembering the terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans was too much to bear for President George W. Bush, who was noticeably missing from Thursday’s dedication of downtown Manhattan’s brand new September 11 Memorial & Museum.

The 43rd commander-in-chief’s two-term presidency will forever be defined by the terror attacks that brought down the World Trade Center and his subsequent reaction to them. While Bush spokesman Freddy Ford blamed the former President’s absence on an unspecific “scheduling conflict,” Confidenti@l has learned that Bush skipped the event because he feared the flood of emotion it would likely trigger.
“It would’ve been too emotional,” says a source close to the opening’s organizers, who fully understood and respected Bush’s reasons for not attending.
Bush did attend a ceremony in Arkansas Thursday where he was honored by the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.
The ex-Prez’s avoidance of the museum opening is consistent with a more pensive and thoughtful George W. Bush, who’s spent a great deal of his post-presidency between his Dallas home and Crawford, Texas, ranch painting portraits of himself and world leaders past and present. He also appears to have softened after becoming a grandfather in early 2013. It was then that he told USA Today, “I’m happy to be out of the limelight. I truly am.”
Nevertheless, the ex-President’s absence sparked outrage from the families of rescue workers who died trying to extract others from the Twin Towers. One woman from Queens called into conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh’s radio show demanding, “Where the hell was President Bush? Why wasn’t his name even mentioned?”
Limbaugh defended Bush, noting the former president has avoided the spotlight since leaving office in 2009. Bush was not expected at the event attended by President Obama, former President Bill Clinton and Mayor de Blasio.
The new museum showcases memorabilia closely identified with Bush’s time in office, including a bullhorn on loan from his Presidential Library in Dallas, that he used to shout out from atop a rubble pile, “The people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.”
After American forces toppled the Taliban in Afghanistan, Bush in 2003 ordered U.S. troops to invade Iraq, which later proved to have been in no way connected to the Sept. 11 attacks.