Rove defends Bush Plan - Does not want his son to do manual labor

[maxparrish]

"I don't want my 17-year-old son to have to pick tomatoes or make beds in Las Vegas."
-- Karl Rove, quoted by the National Review, explaining the rationale behind Bush’s immigration plan.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTZhZDdiYmJlNDViYTAwOWExNmUyMmQ5ODlmMWYwYTU=

According to a congressman's wife who attended a Republican women's luncheon yesterday, Karl Rove explained the rationale behind the president's amnesty/open-borders proposal this way: "I don't want my 17-year-old son to have to pick tomatoes or make beds in Las Vegas."
There should be no need to explain why this is an obscene statement coming from a leader in the party that promotes the virtues of hard work, thrift, and sobriety, a party whose demi-god actually split fence rails as a young man, a party where "respectable Republican cloth coat" once actually meant something. But it does seem to be necessary to explain.
Rove's comment illustrates how the Bush-McCain-Giuliani-Hagel-Martinez-Brownback-Huckabee approach to immigration strikes at the very heart of self-government. It is precisely Rove's son (and my own, and those of the rest of us in the educated elite) who should work picking tomatoes or making beds, or washing restaurant dishes, or mowing lawns, especially when they're young, to help them develop some of the personal and civic virtues needed for self-government.

[UnkHiram]

Well you Know what, I dont want my daughters to pick tomatoes or make beds either. HOWEVER, I still dont want illegals aliens swarming across our country taking all of these "Low paying" Manual labor jobs. They are starting jobs, kids need starting jobs, people on welfare need starting jobs.

[maxparrish]

Well you Know what, I dont want my daughters to pick tomatoes or make beds either. HOWEVER, I still dont want illegals aliens swarming across our country taking all of these "Low paying" Manual labor jobs. They are starting jobs, kids need starting jobs, people on welfare need starting jobs.

I just can't believe the arrogance of his comment - that we need illegals to do jobs unfit for his son (and presumably unfit for any Republican).

That this comment made sense to Rove shows just how disconnected he and Bush are from the rest of us. I am sure he was honest, and I am sure he thought it would resonate with "plain cloth" Republicans. It dis-honors hard working illegals (as many are), it dis-honors working class Americans, and it dishoners the concept of hard manual work.

What planet are Rove and company ON? Bill Kristol (a neo-con of NY intellectual class nice apartment origins), Stien, etc. share this ... almost makes me feel dirty to associate with them.

[UnkHiram]

Max

It is impossible to "Dishonor" hard working Illegals. To start as a criminal removes you from honorable consideration.

[DeclinetoState]

February 09, 2007
<!--p class="author">Ed OKeefe</p--> ABC News' Karen Travers Reports: White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove explained the Bush Administration's guest worker program and immigration policy at a luncheon Thursday by saying, "I don't want my 17-year-old son to have to pick tomatoes or make beds in Las Vegas."

The statement appeared on The Corner (http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTZhZDdiYmJlNDViYTAwOWExNmUyMmQ5ODlmMWYwYTU=), National Review's blog, and has been gaining steam ever since.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino told ABC News that the White House does not deny that Rove made the remark but claims it has been taken out of context. Political Radar (http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2007/02/white_house_red.html)

I'm not too big of a fan of the "out of context" dodge, though sometimes it is legitimate.

[omegatrump]

"I don't want my 17-year-old son to have to pick tomatoes or make beds in Las Vegas."
-- Karl Rove, quoted by the National Review, explaining the rationale behind Bush’s immigration plan.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTZhZDdiYmJlNDViYTAwOWExNmUyMmQ5ODlmMWYwYTU=


I'll bet another thing Rovvy doesn't want is his son taking a rifle tour of Iraq.

[Dowple]

When I was in high school and during the summer of my first year of college, back in the early 1970s, I worked for a landscaper, planting St. Augustine, trees, reshaping flower beds, trimming, edging, repotting and planting flowers, plants, and bushes. Unlike Fat Pudgy, too good for work Karl Rove or his priviliged little boy, my father endorsed the effort, thinking that hard work, the responsiblity of showing up for a job, and committing to a task was good for you. Work ethic. No wonder it's disappearing from the American vocabulary.