Bush would sing national anthem in spanish

Last week President Bush said, "I think the national anthem ought to be sung in English, and I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English and they ought to learn to sing the national anthem in English." But The Progress Report yesterday revealed that in his book American Dynasty, Kevin Phillips notes that during Bush's first presidential campaign, he would often sing the national anthem in Spanish: "When visiting cities like Chicago, Milwaukee, or Philadelphia, in pivotal states, he would drop in at Hispanic festivals and parties, sometimes joining in singing 'The Star-Spangled Banner' in Spanish, sometimes partying with a 'Viva Bush' mariachi band flown in from Texas." Questioned yesterday by the Washington Post, Leonard Rodriguez, national director of Hispanic Coalition for Bush/Cheney 2000, said he couldn't remember if Bush sang in Spanish, but said, "They may have played it. That's certainly in the realm of possibility." Rodriguez said he also did "not recall Bush ever objecting to it." Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) has joined Bush's call for an English-only anthem, stating in a press release that the Star-Spangled Banner has "never before...been rendered in another language." But 1919, the U.S. Bureau of Education commissioned a Spanish-language version of "The Star Spangled Banner" and the U.S. State Department's website currently features four-separate versions of the anthem in Spanish.