Posted on 02/03/2005 9:25:35 AM PST by kjfpolitical
WASHINGTON - 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.
Martinez, a Republican from Orlando, was speaking in favor of President Bush's nomination of White House counsel Alberto Gonzales as the new U.S. attorney general. Gonzales, a Mexican-American, would be the first Hispanic to hold that post.
After praising Gonzales in English as a qualified public servant and a role model for Hispanic-Americans, Martinez switched to Spanish and addressed all "those who came to America to create a better life."
"Judge Gonzales is one of us," he said in Spanish. "He represents all of our hopes and dreams for our children. Let us acknowledge the importance of this moment, for especially our youth.
"We cannot allow petty politicking to deny us this moment that fills us all with such pride."
It was the new senator's first floor speech since he was sworn in last month, and it came during Republican debate on Gonzales' nomination, to a mostly empty chamber. Martinez sought permission to use Spanish beforehand, then gave the English translation for the Congressional Record.
Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, one of a handful of Republican leaders there to hear it, congratulated Martinez when he finished. "I'm sure that this is not only the first time we've had a bilingual first speech in the Senate ... (but) you could not have picked a more important topic," McConnell said.
The Senate is expected to confirm Gonzales' appointment today, despite opposition from many Senate Democrats who say he once advised the Bush administration that torture may not always be unlawful.
Kerry Feehery, Martinez's press secretary, said the senator used Spanish to underscore the importance of Gonzales' nomination to Hispanic-Americans. "It's a historic moment for the Hispanic community and we shouldn't lose sight of the barriers it's breaking," she said.
While Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, whose wife is from Mexico, and President Bush frequently speak Spanish to connect with Hispanic audiences and potential voters, Martinez's speech appears unprecedented in the Senate.
Associate Senate historian Don Ritchie said the Senate has had several other Hispanic members, "but we don't have anything in our files that indicates that either of them ever used Spanish in their speeches on the floor."
Last year, former U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., used a Native American language when introducing a bill, and guest chaplains have said prayers in both Chippewa and Sioux, he said. In the 19th century, senators frequently used Latin phrases but never delivered speeches in Latin.
Ritchie said it is difficult to know exactly what has been said over the past 200 years: Remarks delivered in a foreign language generally don't show up in the official proceedings, simply because those who record the floor debates can't transcribe them.
In place of Martinez's Spanish remarks Wednesday, the unofficial transcript says simply, "Speaking in Spanish."
Univision, the Spanish-language TV network, and CNN en Espanol carried the morning speech live, as did C-SPAN. Feehery said she doubts Martinez will give many bilingual speeches on the Senate floor, "but if it's an important issue to the Hispanic-American community, both in Florida and nationwide, he will."
He should speak english, the language of the government.
My thoughts exactly !!
The news report I heard said a translator was provided for the Senators........
Guess us taxpayers paid for that translator too......:o(
You are making me laugh, big time!
Post 24 has me howling.
What is it with yall today,, you are all making me laugh.
Driving from Santa Fe to Taos we saw a big sign in a yard:
Viva Bush!!! We all yelled and clapped. :)
"You probably think that 'personal accounts' will allow you to 'keep your money' too"
I like what I've heard about this so far and am awaiting more info. My big worry is that it will over-inflate the value of everyone's stocks, causing a huge sell-off, essentially giving away all our social-security cash to smart investors.
1) Conservatives - I voted for Bush following 9/11 and started listening to the conservative programs like Rush, Hannity and Michael Graham, watching Fox News, etc. I'm hawkish on the war, I want to pay less taxes, I think the level of incivility in our culture is shocking, and perhaps a few other "conervative" things, but I'm not a robot. This guy, and Bush, is destroying the Democrats' monopoly on all-things-minority - and I love it. Idealism - be it conservative or liberal - has a place in the world, and that place is in forums like this, universities, books, etc. But it usually doesn't translate 1-to-1 when it gets applied. I'm capable of a certain level of hypocracy in my life. If speaking spanish to an empty room makes me less of a conservative, so be it.
Well, if everyone has to speak English, those people in Georgia are gonna have a bad time cause I can't understand them. And the Louisianians with the cajun accents. And those new yorkers.
I think he was making a point, a quite lovely one, and everyone needs to straighten out their knickers and chill. For crying out loud.
Well, the people who make the earphones could use the business. And they could probably hook their ipods up to them and listen to music rather than each other bloviate.
The Mexicans may think he was discriminating against them as most of them don't speak correct Spanish. The Cubans speak correct Spanish but not the Mexicans.
I was in a situation in Las Vegas a few years ago and some Cubans were speaking Spanish. My Mexican American friend who speaks fluent Spanish could not understand them. My friend then explained the difference in the language.
What next? Latin on the Great Seal? Oh, the horror of it all.
Eye-may ellow-fay onstutients-cay...[[THIS IS GONNA BE A LONG DAY]]
http://www.southparkstudios.com/show/display_episode.php?season=8&id1=806&id2=06&tab=10 liberal douche insists that South Park teach bi-lingual classes in english and gooback.
Bush and Osama decided to settle the war once and for all. They sat down and decided to settle the whole dispute with one dog fight. They would have years to breed the best fighting dog in the world, and whichever side's dog won would be entitled to dominate the world.
Osama found the biggest, meanest Doberman and Rottweiler female dogs in the world, and bred them with the meanest Siberian wolves. They selected only the biggest and strongest puppy from the litter, and removed his siblings, which gave him all the milk. After 5 years, they came up with the biggest, meanest dog the world had ever seen. Its cage needed steel bars that were 5 " thick, and nobody could get near it.
When the day came for the dog fight, Bush showed up with a strange looking animal. It was a 9 foot long Dachshund. Everyone felt sorry for Bush, because there was no way that this dog could possibly last 10 seconds with the Afghanistani dog.
When the cages were opened up, the Dachshund came out of its cage, and slowly waddled over towards Osama's dog. Osama's dog snarled and leaped out of its cage, and charged the American Dachshund.
But when it got close enough to bite, the Dachshund opened its mouth and consumed Osama's dog in one bite. There was nothing left of his dog at all.
Osama came up to Bush, shaking his head in disbelief. "We don't understand how this could have happened. We had our best people working for 5 years with the meanest Doberman and Rottweiler female dogs in the world, and the biggest and meanest Siberian wolves."
"That's nothing," said Bush. "We had Michael Jackson's plastic surgeons working for 5 years to make that alligator look like a wiener dog."
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Now, if you did not like that but want to see something totally cool check this out. Wait a sec first though. Make sure you can handle bandwith and have speakers you can listen to:
Balkanized America
Viva La Raza!
This is the menu from the home page for the IRS at www.IRS.Gov look at the 8th selection right before Help. Now tell what language does the US Government officially endorse?
Less so today than in 1917. Ever read how many immigrants to the U.S. were in our Expeditionary Army?!
Group-identity politics is not conservative, especially from the floor of the Senate.
Searching for legal justification to expand the power of government is not conservative, either.
I don't know about the USA, but in Milwaukee it was the language of many businesses, including Miller Brewing, well into the 1900's.
Xenophon was a great and brilliant man.
If the foolish Greeks had listened to him they might not have had their civilization overrun, pillaged and their people enslaved.
Using Xenophobic as an insult is like calling someone Jeffersonian as an insult.
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