Thursday, February 03, 2005

A First in the Senate

Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) spoke in Spanish yesterday on the floor of the United States Senate in favor of the nomination of Alberto Gonzales to be attorney general. His speech is believed to be the first delivered on the Senate floor in a language other than English.

Although I disagree with Sen. Martinez's position on the Gonzales nomination (as anyone who has read this blog lately knows), I think his decision to address the Hispanic community from the floor of the Senate is significant and a sign of things to come. Politically, it suggests that Republicans (some of them, at least) know that the political future lies with Hispanic voters rather than with "English only" nativists.