Why Spanish is the favored new language of politics

Sen. Sam Brownback (R) of Kansas admits his accent is about as flat as the prairie outside his family farm. That is why, perhaps, he often receives quizzical looks when working on his latest Capitol Hill assignment: speaking Spanish.

"I do butcher a number of words," he says. "A Kansas Midwestern accent doesn't always have the easiest time with some of these rapid Spanish phrases."

With Congress in recess, Senator Brownback and a spate of GOP leaders are spending free time printing vocabulary on flashcards and muttering in the backseats of cars, conjugating verbs in low mumbles.

The reason: Spanish is increasingly important to their party's survival. So they're flocking to Spanish classes to communicate, if only rudimentarily, with constit-uents - in an effort to reach into Hispanic homes and relay political concerns.

Feeling comfortable at Hispanic functions - and confident with a smattering of phrases - has spurred congressional Republicans' most ambitious effort to date at mastering the Spanish tongue. Part of that attempt is Spanish on the Hill, a 10-week course held Wednesday mornings while Congress is in session. This summer saw its largest GOP contingency yet.

Brownback, who took the course, has since mixed a few Spanish phrases into his speeches and begun crafting a Spanish soundbite for radio interviews. But he's learning the most, he says, by just approaching Spanish speakers on the street.

"I go up and say hello, and then they try to teach me something new," says Brownback. "Usually I have to say, 'OK, let me think for a second about what that means.'"

Other lawmakers have taken short, intense trips south of the border to language schools. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas is the latest to take this route. He's spending the week studying Spanish in Cuernavaca, Mexico, after promoting his guest-worker legislation in Mexico City last week.

Nor are Democrats - who attract a larger share of the Hispanic vote - sitting idle. Spouting Spanish is so de rigueur for presidential candidates that Yankees Howard Dean and Sen. John Kerry have both given parts of speeches in Spanish.

But for Republicans, language lessons seem especially important, as the ability to tap growing minority groups goes to the very future of their party.

"The Republican Party has been pretty homogeneous and white for a long time, and they are realizing that they are going to have to adapt to changing circumstances to stay in power," says F. Chris Garcia, a political science professor at the University of New Mexico.

The biggest changing circumstance is the recent announcement that Hispanics are now America's largest ethnic minority. And most of those who vote are bilingual, says Dr. Garcia.

But Republicans have a long way to go. Hispanics have consistently voted Democratic - about 68 percent for Democratic presidential candidates and 70 percent for Democratic congressional candidates.

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