Even AIDS activists admit that red ribbons are not as common as they used to be, despite the fact that the Gay Men’s Chorus apparently wore them during an Inaugural ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial. But there may be something else at work here, besides the notoriously short attention span of the Hollywood establishment.

No less a liberal bastion than the New York Times admitted that former President George W. Bush’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief may be “the most lasting bipartisan accomplishment of the Bush presidency.”

The much-maligned George W. made the fight against global AIDS a hallmark of his administration. More than a million AIDS patients received critical medicine, thanks to the former commander-in-chief. His nemesis, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, was quoted in the Times as saying, “It’s a good thing that he wanted to spend the money. I think it represents a tremendous accomplishment for the country.”

The AIDS threat has certainly not disappeared, but the unabashedly liberal members of the Hollywood regime cannot bring themselves to admit the obvious: Bush managed to achieve victories in the war against AIDS. As one doctor told the Times, “Just because it has been done under Bush, it is not something the country should not be proud of.”

Hollywood causes come and go. But real humanitarians deserve our lasting respect. Despite his flaws, George W. Bush proved to be a hero to people living with the deadly disease known as AIDS. It doesn’t matter whether he’s ever saluted with a ribbon. The lives he changed and possibly saved are tribute enough.