Liberty Medal goes to ex-presidents

PHILADELPHIA – Former presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, who put politics aside to help raise more than $1 billion for disaster relief efforts, will share the 2006 Liberty Medal, officials said Thursday.

The award annually honors an individual or organization that has “demonstrated leadership and vision in the pursuit of liberty of conscience or freedom from oppression, ignorance or deprivation.”

Bush, a Republican, and Clinton, a Democrat, joined forces last year to aid Gulf Coast victims of Hurricane Katrina through the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund. Earlier, they formed the Bush-Clinton Tsunami Partnership to help survivors of the December 2004 tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people in southeast Asia.