In a striking show of unity amid partisan rancor over the Iraq war and U.S. Attorney firings, President Bush yesterday led a bipartisan delegation of House and Senate leaders to present a group of surviving Tuskegee Airmen with the Congressional Gold Medal.

Before a standing-room-only crowd in the Capitol Rotunda, Bush remarked that instead of seeing only statues of heroic Americans in that chamber, he was pleased to see the real thing.

“As I walked into the Rotunda, a place that occasionally I get invited up here and I walk into, I was impressed by the fact that I wasn’t amongst heroes who were statues. I was impressed that I was amongst heroes who still live. I thank you for the honor you have brought to our country. And the medal you’re about to receive means our country honors you, and rightly so.”

Bush spoke about being raised by a World War II aviator, former President George H. W. Bush, who did not have to suffer the many indignities of fighting and dying for a country that treated him like a second-class citizen. However, Bush drew an enthusiastic standing ovation from the Airmen and their supporters after stepping back and offering a crisp military salute.

“I would like to offer a gesture to help atone for all the unreturned salutes and unforgivable indignities. And so, on behalf of the office I hold and a country that honors you, I salute you for the service to the United States of America,” Bush said.

Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., was the principal House sponsor of the Gold Medal bill, which was first introduced in the Senate in February 2005 by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. Though the bill languished in Congress until former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld lent his public support, it swept through both houses of Congress unanimously and was signed by Bush last year.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., also praised the long-unrecognized sacrifice of the Tuskegee Airmen in an eloquent speech that elicited strong applause.