Error establishing a database connection

ok, the same old same old
i looked at other posts but still am not sure what the deal is…lol
unlike most posts I am not uploading and trying anything through phpmyadmin or the like
i followed the mysql client and confirmed all my values in the config file

just for your reading pleasure here it is

?php
// ** MySQL settings ** //
define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘wordpress’); // The name of the database
define(‘DB_USER ‘, ‘wordpress’); // Your MySQL username
define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘#*%&$&$&#*#’); // …and password
define(‘DB_HOST’, ‘localhost’); // 99% chance you won’t need to change this value
define(‘DB_CHARSET’, ‘latin1’);
define(‘DB_COLLATE’, ”);

// Change each KEY to a different unique phrase. You won’t have to remember the phrases later,
// so make them long and complicated. You can visit https://api.www.ads-software.com/secret-key/1.1/
// to get keys generated for you, or just make something up. Each key should have a different phrase.
define(‘AUTH_KEY’, ‘put your unique phrase here’); // Change this to a unique phrase.
define(‘SECURE_AUTH_KEY’, ‘put your unique phrase here’); // Change this to a unique phrase.
define(‘LOGGED_IN_KEY’, ‘put your unique phrase here’); // Change this to a unique phrase.

// You can have multiple installations in one database if you give each a unique prefix
$table_prefix = ‘wp_’; // Only numbers, letters, and underscores please!

// Change this to localize WordPress. A corresponding MO file for the
// chosen language must be installed to wp-content/languages.
// For example, install de.mo to wp-content/languages and set WPLANG to ‘de’
// to enable German language support.
define (‘WPLANG’, ”);

/* That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */

if ( !defined(‘ABSPATH’) )
define(‘ABSPATH’, dirname(__FILE__) . ‘/’);
require_once(ABSPATH . ‘wp-settings.php’);
?>

Now I am fairly confidant my settings are correect…
I can even use the mysql client to log into the db with username and password shown above (password not actual for privacy reasons)

any ideas?

i will try and setup with root user but i don’t like it…8<(