Sen. Patty Murray avoids C-word, opts for 'holiday' at national lighting ceremony
By Joe Kovacs
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., called this a "holiday tree" while House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., referred to it as a "Christmas tree" during last night's 43rd annual lighting of the "U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree"
When Democrats won control of Congress in November's election, the victory may have reignited a controversy many Americans thought had been settled a year ago – and that is what to call the national tree in front of the U.S. Capitol.
In 2005, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., instructed federal officials to refer to it as the "Capitol Christmas Tree," after having been called the "Capitol Holiday Tree" since the 1990s.
But at last night's lighting ceremony for the 65-foot Pacific Silver Fir, the Democrat senator from the tree's home state of Washington never used the word "Christmas" in her speech to the assembled crowd, opting instead for the term "holiday tree" twice.
"It is so wonderful and such an honor to be here tonight in the nation's capital as we light what we all believe from the other end of the country is the best holiday tree ever," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. (Read More)
This blog was created by the 4-H NETWORK NEWS club of Jefferson County, WA. - a youth-run Internet multi-media club. The video segments document the people and the process involved in the identification, harvest, transport, and decoration of the 2006 Capitol Christmas Tree from the Olympic National Forest in Washington State.
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The Olympic National Forest is part of an emerald paradise. The Forest is located on the Olympic Peninsula in the northwest corner of Washington State (the Evergreen State).
Dr. Terry Bergeson, State Superintendent of Public Instruction (left), Micah Joe (Ornament Drawing Winner), and his parents, Chief Petty Officer Alvin Joe and mom Jennifer Joe, "First Mike Gregoire", in WA DC in front of the Capitol Christmas Tree.
Claire Turner stands in front of the 2006 Capitol Christmas Tree before it leaves by truck from the Washington State Capitol in Olympia to tour the state and the country on its way to Washington D.C.
