Appearing with Armstrong was Sen. Edward Kennedy, who also sported a yellow tie. Trying to show solidarity with Lance, senator? Yes, he told us, before adding, “He’s a cool dude, isn’t he?” Like Armstrong, Kennedy also sported a yellow bracelet (well, yellow gold, actually, but close enough).

Meanwhile, Armstrong’s home-state senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison, called the cyclist “my hero.”

“This is not a cause that I picked,” said Armstrong. “This is one that picked me.” He said he thinks that cancer has almost been ignored as an “opponent” over the past few years.

Armstrong, who flew to New York after the event to be honored last night as one of the “Time 100,” also testified at a hearing of Kennedy’s HELP Committee with Elizabeth Edwards and Steve Case, the co-founder of AOL and current chairman and chief executive officer of Revolution Health.

Also appearing on the Hill on Thursday: Documentarian Ken Burns, who testified before the House Education and Labor Committee on National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities programs; and actor Danny Glover, who spoke at a news conference about the global food crisis.