George W. Bush is still a linguistic master--just not a bilingual master.

You just can't make this stuff up, folks.

Yesterday, Bush nominated Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden to be the Director of the CIA (and I am definitely not in favor of that appointment), and here is what he said about Hayden:

He's the right man to lead the CIA at this critical moment in our nation's history.

On August 10, 2004, Bush announced the nomination of the just-resigned (which is to say "forced out") CIA Director Porter Goss, and here is what Bush said about Goss:

He's the right man to lead this important agency at this critical moment in our nation's history.

I guess George is trying to show he's an environmentalist now because he apparently really believes in recycling. Seriously--the man could not think of something new to say? That is plain sad.

And now we get to the second part of this post's title...

By now surely everyone knows that on April 28, 2006, Bush had the following exchange with a reporter:

Q: Mr. President, a cultural question for you. There is a version of the National Anthem in Spanish now. Do you believe it will hold the same value if sung in Spanish as in English?

THE PRESIDENT: No I don't, because 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.

And by the way, I agree with Bush on this point. If I were going to move to a non-English-speaking country and seek to be a citizen of that country, I should learn to sing that county's national anthem in its native language. Then again, it might be a good idea to require all current American citizens to know the lyrics of the Anthem. But here comes the funny part...

On May 2, 2006, at a press briefing Scotty-Boy was asked the following:

Scott, I wonder -- on Friday, the President firmly said he believes the National Anthem should be sung in English. Kevin Phillips, the Republican analyst, wrote a book called American Dynasty, and in there he claims that during the President's 2000 campaign, he did sing the Star Spangled Banner in Spanish at some Hispanic festivals, various campaign events. Are you aware, do you recall that from the 2000 campaign?

And McClellan's answer was "No, I don't."

Two days later, Scotty-Boy's memory was not any better, but he said "It's absurd" to claim that Bush ever did sing the Anthem in Spanish because "The president can speak Spanish but not that well. He's not that good with his Spanish." Really? That is certainly not the image Bush put forward in his campaigns for Texas Governor and President. Indeed, a long time aide to Bush (going back to his first campaign for governor), Israel Hernandez, said in a June 3, 2002, New York Times article that Bush's Spanish, while not great was nonetheless good:

"It's conversational," said Mr. Hernandez, a deputy to Karl Rove, the president's chief political adviser. "He understands enough to respond back to people who ask him questions, and he could even read an article and understand it."

Also, Bush delivered the Cinco de Mayo radio message for 2001 in Spanish, and that was the first time any President had done a radio address in Spanish. The New York Times article also had several sources saying that Bush's Spanish was bad, but that is beside the point of this little discussion. The point is that Bush and his handlers have consistently portrayed the man as being able to speak Spanish in order to show his diversity. And now--all of a sudden--he is not capable of singing a song in Spanish because his Spanish is so bad.

So, in spite of what was represented before, we are now told that Bush cannot speak both languages. This is a further example that he is, however, highly proficient at speaking out of both sides of his mouth.