Don’t want to belabor this too much, but a couple of quick points regarding the Rove quotes:

1) The most basic point to remember is what John Miller wrote: “Nobody aspires to have their children spend a lifetime performing manual labor.” Pretty obvious, I think.

2) When reading the remarks, it’s important to consider what Rove thinks about immigration. One of the key phrases you’ll almost always see when the administration touts its immigration plan is “willing workers”—the term is always used to refer to immigrant workers. Seems reasonable to presume that what Rove was implying, however awkwardly, was that he doesn’t want his son to become an unwilling worker, and he thinks the President’s immigration plan would help prevent that.

Again, consider his use of “have to” in the first remark and “somebody’s got to do it” in the second, both of which suggest that, if not immigrants, then somebody–presumably his son–will have to fill those jobs. I’m not saying I necessarily think that’s sound reasoning, but, given the general assumptions behind the Bush immigration plan and his particular choice of words in both instances, it seems fair to suggest that that’s what he intended.

3) I agree with several emailers that Rove should’ve given a little more thought to his choice of words, but I’m just not convinced that the worse case interpretation—Rove sneers and sticks up his nose at menial labor—is the most likely.