Lots of buzz around the topic of the English as the official language of the U.S. On the Reuters news website, Alberto Gonzales’s explaining away of the issue is classified under the heading “World Crises”:

President George W. Bush has long opposed making English the country’s national language, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said on Friday, a day after the Senate voted to do so, but the White House said later Gonzales had got caught in a “linguistic snare.”

The Senate vote came in an amendment to proposed legislation overhauling U.S. immigration law and directed the government to “preserve and enhance” the role of English. Opponents said it could affect the status of some multilingual services offered by government organizations.

Adding to the confusion, the Senate also adopted a softer amendment calling English the “unifying language” of the United States. Senators take both versions into negotiations over a final bill with the U.S. House of Representatives.

Gonzales is quick to defend Dubya by saying:

“The president has never supported making English the national language,” Gonzales said after meeting with state and local officials in Texas to discuss cooperation on enforcement of immigration laws.
He said Bush has instead long supported a concept called “English-Plus,” believing that it was good to be proficient in more than one language.

Later on Friday, the White House weighed in to clarify Gonzales’ remarks, saying the president does not believe in English as an “official” language.

Apparently the “little mix up” stemmed from confusion around the terms “national language” and “official language”, according to Reuters.

Related:

El Mundo article: “El Senado de EE UU aprueba una enmienda que otorga al inglés la condición de idioma nacional” (ESP)

Via / Reuters