Mel Martinez Defends Gonzalez in Spanish on Senate Floor

St. Petersburg Times ^ | February 3, 2005 | WES ALLISON

[ClintonBeGone]

Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, the first Cuban-American elected to the U.S. Senate, on Wednesday apparently marked another first: delivering the first Spanish speech on the Senate floor.

Spanish on the Senate floor?? This is sure to drive the Tancretoids nuts.

[isthisnickcool]

Bush better nominate someone who speaks French so John kerry has something to do.

[SF Republican]

Viva Bush

[cyncooper]

Here'a an article about your good Senator.

:)

[cyncooper]

In place of Martinez's Spanish remarks Wednesday, the unofficial transcript says simply, "Speaking in Spanish."

In this day and age that is absolute nonsense. There is no reason his exact remarks cannot be transcribed and included in the record. Hopefully the official record will do so.

[olde north church]

It's a tough call but ultimately a bad sign.
I couldn't prove it, but I'd read once or twice before that German almost became the official language of the USA.
There is also the history of the American Southwest, Spanish-American War Islands and Florida with the history of Spanish but assimilation took care of most of it.

[NonValueAdded]

Indeed, Viva Bush and Viva Mel! What a difference from our last Senator from Florida.

[isthisnickcool]

In this day and age that is absolute nonsense. There is no reason his exact remarks cannot be transcribed and included in the record. Hopefully the official record will do so.

If they can edit out all the times Hillary Clinton says "you know" they can certainly translate from Spanish to English. In fact, it should be less time consuming.

[sully777]

Spanish on the Senate floor?? This is sure to drive the Tancretoids nuts.

---

?

[lugsoul]

Holy pandering, Batman!

[SolidSupplySide]

Spanish on the Senate floor?? This is sure to drive the Tancretoids nuts.

Yeah, there are a lot of xenophobes on FR.

[NetValue]

For the benefit of our hyphenated Americans it looks like we need to state in law that our official language is English.

[ChefKeith]

Florida Sen. Mel Martinez

You are in America, SPEAK ENGLISH!!!

[Soul Seeker]

he's reaching out to the Hispanic Community. This will be repeated on Spanish channels without need of translation. The Dems are harming themselves by blocking this man.

[olde north church]

Correction/edit on statement re: German Language America:
The myth that German almost became the official language of the United States persists even today.  Although the notion was widely spread by German travel authors of the 1840s, the vote never came to the congressional floor.  Colonial leaders had no tolerance for the German language.  During the war of 1812, only 9% of the U.S. population was German.  Officials ignored German-language farmers in Virginia who petitioned the House of Representatives in 1794 for a German translation of a law booklet.  More often than not, the idea reigned that the “faster they became Americans, the better,” and that meant speaking English. 
Most Germans sought economic prosperity, which required the ability to communicate with other Americans.  While bi-lingual schools existed through the early 20th century, the German language still was heard less and less.  By World War I, many communities had banned the teaching of German.
http://www.germany-info.org/relaunch/culture/ger_americans/paper.html
With respect,
onc

[kjfpolitical]

More importantly, this will drive the Democrats nuts! I was told THEIR new hispanic-american senator (Ken Salazar) doesn't speak spanish very well. Mel Martinez will allow us to continue bringing more hispanic Americans into the conservative/Republican party ranks.

It also makes the libs look like idiots for blocking a supremely qualified AG nominee. don't think this won't hurt them further with hispanic voters...

[stainlessbanner]

The Spanish just lent Florida to the US for a few years. Now they are taking it back.

[kjfpolitical]

The vast majority of his speech was in English. He spoke three sentences in Spanish to communicate to our growing Hispanic-American community. His speech was carried live on Telemundo and CNN Espanol. This is good for conservatives. We should be glad to have a spokesman who speaks perfect English AND can reach out to this voting bloc. He also sends a message that in order to succeed in America, you still need to learn English!