Y'know, I think I'd almost rather get a letter like that than the usual bland pablum that I get in response from my elected representatives. When I wrote to a senator of ours to oppose the flag-desecration legislation (on the grounds that it's undefinable and unenforcable), I got back a generated letter thanking me for my interest and my concern, and then telling me all that the legislator had done in support of the bill.

I had a little better luck a few years ago when I wrote to the head of the SEC after Bush declared that Cheney would be found innocent of any stock-sale wrongdoing at Halliburton.

I effusively congratulated the head of the SEC for knowing what he had better do now that he had his marching orders straight from the guy who appointed him. I got back an e-mail from their Texas office, with an SEC employee growling at me for being so cynical and saying "I'm truly sorry you feel that way!" I don't know why he had to be sorry - I was proved right in the long run.

I'd rather get a letter like that than what I usually get which is something like, "Thank you for taking the time to express your opinion about pending legislation. I don't really give a damn about your opinion and I'm going to vote the way my party, not the people in my district, tell me to vote." Of course I'm paraphrasing. No member of Congress would actually be that honest.

At least she didn't have to explain her handwritten post script:

"PS -- please forgive the delay in responding, MUTHA FUCKA!"

All I can suggest are the words of the great Muhammed Ali: "It ain't bragging if it's true!"

And here is Exhibit "A." This guy has a long history of "Reverse Sabotage," like bugging his own office, then blaming it on the opponent.

The first step is always a dirty trick (like adding "I think you're an asshole" to a constituent letter). The second step is to blame it on the opponent, and the third is to count on the slothful Fourth Estate to eat it all, hook, line and sinker. Hopefully Salon will not.

As Molly Ivins might say, this doesn't have Karl Rove's fingerprints on it, it's got his DNA.

When working as a Legislative Assistant for an ex congressman who'll remain nameless to protect his legacy, I wrote a similar letter.

We received SO MANY letters on so many topics and the workload was impressive. To keep track, we'd often start a letter ("thank you for contacting me concerning HR666, the bill to make Satan president..." -- hey, didn't we pass that one?) and then move onto something else with that as a sort of bookmark we'd come back to, later.

Our office had recently begun syncing files with the district office, a new thing for early 90s.

I'd been in the midst of writing a slew of "thank you for contacting me on..." letters and had ended that intro sentence, "now fuck off," intending, as with the others, to go back and finish it later.

Well, someone in the district office saw that there was a response to HR666 and printed it out, signed it and sent it off to the constituent, somehow failing to notice that the letter was all of 2 sentences long (and that one of those sentences ended: "now fuck off.").

Excellent firestorm.

So, I sympathize with the 20-year old aide and, though reluctantly, with Rep. Emerson.

-- Blue State to the core.

Don't all Republicans think their constituents are assholes?