Bush Didn't Intend to Insult Democrats, Snow Says

WASHINGTON, Jan 29 - President George W. Bush said on Monday he did not intend to insult Democrats by failing to pronounce their party's full name in his State of the Union address.

"I didn't know I did it," Bush told NPR in an interview.

In his speech last Tuesday, Bush declared to a joint session of the U.S. Congress that "I congratulate the Democrat majority." Some Democrats were incensed he did not say "Democratic." The party's proper name is the Democratic Party.

Republicans for years have dropped the last two letters of the name as a slight to the party. Bush's prepared text of his speech had the proper name but he misstated it in his address.

Bush called it an oversight and said he was "not that good at pronouncing words anyway." He said he was surprised at the level of distrust in Washington.

"There is a lot of politics in Washington -- in my judgment, needless politics. And it's almost like, 'If George Bush is for it, we're against it,' and 'If he's against it, we're for it.' And the American people don't like that," Bush said.

In his speech, Bush went out of his way to praise California Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the new speaker of the House of Representatives, and declared his intent to work with Democrats in the majority of the House and Senate.