Bush Awards Medals of Freedom to Three Allies

"My friend was there, indeed, after America was attacked," Bush said.

Uribe, Bush told the audience, deserved praise for a "resolute and uncompromising" battle against Colombia's drug cartels.

"The forces of violence are on the defensive," Bush said. The crowd responded with the longest sustained applause of the afternoon.

Bush called Howard "a sturdy friend in a time of need," and noted that the former leader he calls "a Man of Steel" was in Washington on Sept. 11, 2001, and "saw the burning Pentagon." Howard was criticized by his political opponents for sending Australian troops to Iraq. He was soundly defeated for reelection in 2007 and suffered the indignity of losing his seat in Parliament. Most recently, though, it was Howard's stay at Blair House that caused controversy, provoking ridicule here and in his home country.

Obama and his family had asked the Bush administration for permission to stay at the mansion prior to the inauguration so the Obama girls, Malia and Sasha, could start school. The Bush administration declined the request, saying the mansion was taken. It later was revealed that Howard and his wife, Janette, were the only overnight guests during the period the Obamas wanted to stay at the mansion. Needing a secure place to lay their heads, the Obamas opted to stay at the Hay-Adams Hotel until their scheduled move into Blair House on Thursday.

Howard's decision to stay at the mansion piqued the feisty Australian press. A headline in the Courier-Mail screamed: "Sleep in the park, US tells Howard." The Australian newspaper wrote of "Fury as John Howard's end upsets Barack Obama's beginning," and the Herald Sun declared, "Howard bushwhacks Obama."

Howard almost had company at the manse. Blair and Uribe were invited to bunk there, too, but declined.

In eight years as president, Bush has bestowed the Medal of Freedom on, among others, an Army private who died after jumping on a grenade to save his colleagues in Iraq, boxer Muhammad Ali, "To Kill a Mockingbird" author Harper Lee and Fred Rogers of "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood."

Yesterday, though, Bush was looking ahead to a time when he won't be handing out medals anymore. He invited Blair, Howard and Uribe -- "the sort of guys who look you in the eye" -- to come on down to the ranch in Crawford for a visit.

"As you have probably heard," Bush said, "we're changing addresses." Guffaws.