Sen. Tim Kaine Delivers Speech in Spanish on Senate Floor
Click to viewSen. Tim Kaine did something rare on Tuesday: he delivered a speech in Spanish on the floor of the Senate.
Shortly after noon, the Virginia Democrat spoke in favor of immigration reform hours before the Senate voted to move forward on the bill.
On a day when supporters and opponents spoke at length about the immigration bill, Kaine's speech would have struggled to stick out had it not been in a different language. Spanish floor speeches are extremely rare in the Senate, but Roll Call notes this wasn't the first time a senator spoke a little español at the rostrum (Florida GOP Sen. Mel Martinez did it in 2005).
Unlike Martinez, Kaine isn't a native speaker. He learned the language while teaching in Honduras as a 22-year-old.
The freshman senator's speech also appeared to be a tip of the cap to Latino voters in his home state. Sixty-two percent voted for Kaine over his GOP opponent last November, according to exit polls, giving him an edge in the race.
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I've been keeping up with the immigration debate in the senate and I'm pleased that someone made a speech in Spanish to make the xenophobes in the Senate uncomfortable. There's already wank from right wingers over how the senator dared to speak a ~scary foreign language~ on the sacred ground of the Senate lol.