A truly embarrassing moment for House Minority Leader John Boehner at today's Congressional Medal of Honor ceremony honoring the Tuskegee airmen.
During his short speech to those in attendance, Boehner six times mispronounced the group's name as the "Tusk-E-gee,'' eliciting audible groans from the front to the back of the Capitol Rotunda. One woman standing in front of me leaned to her companion and whispered, "This is so embarrassing, and he's from my state."
Perhaps making matters worse, almost all of Boehner's speech focused on the general accomplishments of American forces in World War II, paying little direct respect to those in the room.
As if to remove any doubt about the verbal kerfuffle, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell took the stage and began his speech by pronouncing the group's name correctly, while making a clear, if passing, glance in Boehner's direction. Immediately afterward, the entire crowd broke into applause at the correction.
-- Eric Pfeiffer, Capitol Hill correspondent, The Washington Times
Comments (3)
Check your facts the Tuskegee Airmen didn't receive the Congressional Medal Of Honor, they all should have. They received the Congressional Gold Medal, and had to pay $39 each for a copy.
Posted by Ron | March 31, 2007 12:44 AM
The medal was the Congressional Gold Medal. Not the Medal of Honor.
Posted by David Nelson | April 3, 2007 8:09 AM
What a mistake for our politically correct leaders.
Posted by Emmett D. Bowers | April 3, 2007 7:39 PM