Is "Lieutenant Dan" a Republican?

[LittleClarkie]

Somehow I didn't expect that. But I heard Gary Sinise last week on our local morning show, and it sounded like he was involved in the USO (cool) but also sounded very much like a Republican as he talked about all the good that was happening in Iraq that wasn't seen. Apparently he'd gotten some school supplies together for Iraqi schoolchildren, who were very appreciative (they videotapes the kids getting their stuff so Gary could see the reaction).

Just wondering.

[charlie]

1. He's a hard one to pin

Intentionally so, I think. I've never heard him speak of a political matter in a way that indicated that he was expressing an ideological worldview. Instead, he stays pretty resolutely with discussing concrete facts and the situation at hand. I suspect he's one of those big I independents who works to preserve his political disaffiliation.

On the other hand, FWIW, he was part of the entertainment roster at the last presidential inauguration.

[LittleClarkie]

2. Reading Wikpedia, he's involved in an Iraq children's organization

with the woman who wrote Seabiscuit. Hard to fault sending stuff overseas to Iraqi children. At least he's doing something constructive.

And he's formed the "Lieutenant Dan Band" for the USO and other charities. I didn't know he was musical either.

[charlie]

3. He's working with Laura Hillenbrand?

That's amazing. Amazing that she's able to, that is. Have you checked out her story? She's been virtually crippled by Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The Seabiscuit book was written with her crawling on the floor of her house, unable to leave her room, with only her notes, books, and a telephone.

[LittleClarkie]

4. Wow, Wikpedia touches on that

but her bio over there is far from complete.

[charlie]

5. Found an interview with her

An excerpt:

Writing this book was immensely important to me, but my illness made it very hard. I had to accept that there would be a large physical price to pay for undertaking this project, and that I would have to pare away the rest of my life to save my strength for what I wanted to do. For the four years that I researched and wrote this book, I did virtually nothing else. I devoted everything I had to it. I had my office set up so that there was a refrigerator, cereal boxes, bowls, spoons, and a giant jug of water right by my desk, allowing me to keep working without wasting energy on fixing meals. I stacked my research books in a semicircle on the floor around my chair so I wouldn't have to get up to get them. I couldn't travel to my sources, but found ways around that by making maximum use of the Library of Congress' interlibrary loan service, the Internet, my fax machine, email, and, of course, my telephone. For the most part, my body held together. I worked whenever I had strength, sometimes at odd hours, and I often worked until completely exhausted and dizzy. There were days when it was almost impossible to move, but I usually found something I still had the strength to do. If I was too dizzy to write, I did interviews. If I was too weak to sift through books, I sat still and wrote. Sometimes I worked while in bed, lying on my back and scribbling on a pad with my eyes closed. Though it was hard to do this, there was never a point at which I became discouraged. These subjects were just too captivating for me to ever consider abandoning the project. The price I paid was steep. Within hours of turning in the manuscript, my health collapsed completely. The vertigo returned in force, and I was unable to read or write at all for several months. I also became markedly weaker and was rendered almost entirely housebound again. Well over a year later, I still haven't completely recovered. But it was worth it.

http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides3/seabiscuit2.asp