Dear Karl,

Pasted below, unedited and in its entirety, is a missive from Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., to one Karl Rove, and may we say that after reading the piece in which Rove is quoted and to which Berkley refers, it must be confessed that we did not know a) Karl Rove is still alive, and b) a Republican women's luncheon is still apparently a venue primarily for wives of congressmen.

February 9, 2007

Dear Mr. Rove: 

National Review On-line quoted you as saying recently that the reason we need a guest worker program is that you don't want your 17-year-old son picking tomatoes or making beds in Las Vegas (Not Our Kind of People, Mark Krikorian, 2.9.07).

Your remarks insinuate that physical labor is only for people you see as lower class, and beneath the dignity of those born into privilege. 

Growing up in Las Vegas, my father put food on the table and a roof over our heads by waiting tables at a local resort.  Because of his hard work, my sister and I were both able to graduate college and to find our own piece of the American dream.   

Making beds in Las Vegas for a living may not provide the perks you are accustomed to as a senior White House staffer, but on average, these jobs pay good wages and in most cases, offer affordable healthcare coverage and other benefits.   

In the future I hope that you will think twice before demeaning the jobs of hard working Nevadans and others like them all across the nation who are the backbone of our economy.  Unlike you, they may never get to travel the world or take home a big salary courtesy of the American taxpayer, but these men and women know the meaning of hard work and the value of a day's pay.  I urge you to respect honest work, not denigrate it.

Sincerely,

Shelley Berkley

Member of Congress

Needless to say, Nevada Republicans John Ensign, Jon Porter, Dean Heller and whatshisface in the governor's mansion, some of whom (particularly Porter) have been more than happy to bring Rove to Nevada to raise money for their own offensive insult-laden campaigns, should demand that Rove apologize to their constituents.

Comments

[The Penguin]

Nice letter but now I a-scared: There is a spawn of Rove out there?

[Johnathan L. Abbinett]

This is EXACTLY why I LOVE SHELLEY BERKLEY! She will never forget her humble roots and the common, All-American, hard working people of Nevada!

What a GREAT Congresswoman! Shelley's a fighter and one of the greatest Veteran's Advocates in the entire United States!

Sadly, I live in CD #3 and have to deal with disappointment after disappointment from "Porter The Puppet!"

But, I'm planning on buying a condo in CD #1, so I'm closer to the proposed VA hospital and I can PROUDLY say - Shelley Berkley is MY Congresswoman!

[Paine]

Those Nevadans who voted for Ensign, Gibbons or Porter are the ones who really should apologize. Rove was just being the bigot he is.

[what??]

yeah, thanks for reminding me of how Rove's connections through his sister's in-laws in Elko helped the Elko repukes bring Cheney and then the asshate president to Elko to suffocate us with their hatemongering.

[diego277]

Cuidado, hermanos... el escenario se cambia...

Be careful, brothers: the whole scene is changing. Or am I and my friends the only ones who are noticing that, contrary to what local iconoclastic art and social critic Dave Hickey pronounced on KNPR yesterday, Las Vegas (and Nevada) is no longer the "relaxed place with regard to class" he maintains it is? Hickey has been hanging out too much with the wealthy art collectors and taking his pay from those snobbish idiots, and he's losing touch.

I only wish what Shelley Berkley writes will have some resonance, but I think not. This state is changing. Has anyone else noticed there is a new breed of wealthy cat setting down roots in this town -- the ones who hang out in the exclusive French chef restaurants in the private dining rooms, who inhabit the VIP boxes at the Rebels games, the ones who retreat behind their high walls in multi-million dollar mansions in Southern Hills and scoff at the rest of us? Hasn't anyone noted this lately? And felt in the air that disdain born only of money of those who treat the rest of us as if we were mere riff-raff?

Las Vegas used to be a genuine, blue collar town. Now it seems powered mainly by the callow arrogance of the newly rich, and of executives eating expensive meals with visiting CEOs (anyone catch Steve Wynn with Jack Welch at Daniel Boulud last Saturday night -- talking only of stock prices while the hard-working dealers outside on his casino floor are still simmering over their tip rip-off to make the truly blind Steve-O even richer?) This is what the Republican dominated society based on pure greed and the "global free market" myth has wrought: open contempt for the working class, for our brothers who keep the lawns green, for our sisters who make the beds and vacuum the halls at mega-corporate hotels now pressing them to do more and more per hour like a sped-up factory assembly line; our neighbors who labor in the vineyards and press the grapes to make wine for the all too wealthy guzzle mostly do so at their own expense. The scale has tilted.

Karl Rove is expressing here the prevailing attitude of the Republican party toward the people: promise them anything, they'll take what they can get. Ensign is pressed from that same mold, born with cash in his mouth and his golfer's suntan -- he hasn't known a real day's labor in his life. Gibbons is an ass-kissing idiot chasing the golden calf, hoping to live like one of them, and he'll do anything to suck up to the wealthy class, anything at all, no matter what. It's all so disgusting. Es un asco.

A la pared con todos. In my dreams...

[Johnathan L. Abbinett]

Good post "Diego" - and, YES, some of us are payting attention and notice!

[RussBBinVegas@aol.com]

And please, if you think Shelley Berkley is some sort of populist "woman of the people" I got a goddamn bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. Jesus if that letter isn't embarassingly saccharine, and phoney. Or maybe you should go check out Mrs. Tomato Picker herself, at the MGM Grand "Mansion" on February 21 at 5:30 in the evening when CEO Terrence Lanni hosts a $5,000-a-person fundraiser to secure Berkley's future campaigns and her permanence. Yes indeed, she serves her masters in the casino industry well, pointing her new Committee assignment AGAINST any new gambling taxes. When she's not doing the bidding of her OTHER masters of course, in Israel ..

[Johnathan L. Abbinett]

Shelley Berkley is the ONLY Nevada politician that got a 100% rating from the Non-Partisan Disabled American Veterans (DAV)!

Say what you will, but, Shelley's record with Veterans is 100% solid based on her factual voting record!

Does she support Israel? Sure, wouldn't you expect that from any Jew? Is gaming important to Nevada and worthy of support? Of course! So what's the problem? Nothing!

[diego277]

Gracias, Russ... but I have to disagree, at least in part, with your reading of Shelley Berkley. I've known her for more than 15 years -- since she was on the Board of Regents. Since she was elected to Congress, I HAVE noted more distance from her constituency, more of a "Washington insider" attitude, less warmth (also a cosmetic makeover, natch) and less direct engagement with where and how the citizen on the street in Las Vegas really lives.

On the other hand, that's what happens to our elected Representatives as they ladder-climb in Washington and learn how to play the game. Shelley now plays that game exceptionally well -- yes, with lobbyists, and, yes, with the new wealthy class in Vegas, and also (let's even call it what it has become now) the new political dynasty of the NDP (what with Ried, Masto, Miller, et. al., and so many others the sons and daughters of Nevada politicos). It's a shame, what's happened to the system, and our democracy. Still, trust me -- Shelley Berkley is a whole lot better than many, many others.

I only wish her troops had been working more in District 1 to get votes out for Dina Titus in the last election. They seemed to be sitting on the sidelines more than ever before -- which is why I believe voter turn-out was so damned low in her district last election. Still, dentro de todo... all things considered... Shelley can still deliver, if pressed, for the rest of us. And that's something. She's got my vote -- still -- for next time around.

!Que le vaya bien con el poder! May she do well with her new power!

[RussBBinVegas@aol.com]

Hey Diego, what's your fax number. I'll send over letters Mrs. Berkley wrote me in 2003 saying Oh We Must Go After That Bad Guy Saddam Hussein And I Wholeheartedly Support The President's Actions. Shock & awe, baby! Y entonces mi amigo Seňor Abbinnet, I'm sure glad ol' Shell works on behalf of Veterans With A Leg Shot Off, since she's more interested in creating new ones than in preventing our Las Vegas working-class youth from being sucked up into CheneyBush's Cannon Fodder Meat-Grinder..