For the first time, tonight’s State of the Union message will be followed

by a Democratic response <A

HREF=”http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/01/20/sotu.richardson.ap/”>in

Spanish via Univision.

If our political leaders in Washington bothered to read anything about

Hispanic voters besides press releases from the National Council of La Raza

they would <A

HREF=”http://latinosonline.com/cabe/showarticle.cfm?titleID=1208″>learn

that “[m]ore than 75 percent of all U.S. Hispanics either speak English

exclusively or are bilingual and speak English well or very well.” A good

number of these folks loath politicians who presume that Hispanic Americans

cannot understand English.