ok, i had to run this guy down, but someone else beat me to the write-up..
You cant make this stuff up...
Zio-comedy du jour:
Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher related to Charles “the Crook” Keating. Oops.
October 15th, 2008 . by Marty
John McCain did great tonight in the debate. But every time John mentioned “Joe the Plumber,” some of us in the campaign banged our heads against the wall. If Steve Schmidt had any hair left, I hear he would have been pulling it out tonight. He reportedly screamed at John’s debate prep team tonight (out of earshot of reporters, of course). “You idiots - he’s related to Charles Keating… of the Keating Five scandal!” They thought they had a real live Joe Six-Pack who’s spurned Barack Obama’s tax plan. But what they forgot to do was check on Joe Wurzelbacher’s background.
Turns out that Joe Wurzelbacher from the Toledo event is a close relative of Robert Wurzelbacher of Milford, Ohio. Who’s Robert Wurzelbacher? Only Charles Keating’s son-in-law and the former senior vice president of American Continental, the parent company of the infamous Lincoln Savings and Loan. The now retired elder Wurzelbacher is also a major contributor to Republican causes giving well over $10,000 in the last few years.
Does any of this make Joe the Plumber a bad guy? Of course not. In fact, after that ill-fated night at the Watergate, he may finally be giving plumbers a good name. But at a debate where John goes full bore on Obama for guilt-by-association with William Ayers (and dodges a bullet by Obama not mentioning Keating Five), the press is going to bring it back front and center by midday tomorrow once they delve deeper into the most popular plumber in America.
This might remind you of the Paris Hilton scandal - where one side of the McCain campaign attacked her in an ad, not realizing that her family were huge donors. I was the first to warn the campaign of the perils of miscommunication within the campaign, and that story flared for a week.
UPDATE: Sure enough, a few hours after posting this, the left wing haters at DailyKos posted (or shall I say copied?) their own revelations about Joe’s connections to Keating. Like I said to the campaign: Oops.
UPDATE AGAIN: This story certainly got traction, and I’ve had media requests all afternoon. It’s nice to see that Michelle Malkin linked to me even as she contends that the lefties have all sorts of weird conspiracies about poor old Joe. But even Michelle misses the point a little: it doesn’t really matter how Joe is related to Keating. What matters is that here we are talking about it when we should be talking about Obama and Ayers. The campaign really should have done a better job vetting the man they planned to reference 22 times in the last and final debate.
Submitted by Shootingsparks on Fri, 2008-10-17 14:54
- Shootingsparks's blog
- Login or register to post comments
- 196 reads
-
But he became the hero of conservatives and Republicans when he stopped Mr. Obama, who was campaigning on Shrewsbury Street on Sunday, and asked whether he believed in the American dream. Mr. Wurzelbacher said he was concerned about having to pay taxes as he reached a point where he could afford to buy his own plumbing business, one he said would draw income of $250,000 a year.
Unlike some other states, Ohio does not have a formal statewide licensing system for plumbers. But the city of Toledo and other municipalities do, Mr. Joseph said, and Mr. Wurzelbacher has not met those requirements.
“All contractors are licensed, and he does not have a license, either as a contractor or a plumber,” the union official said, citing a search of government records. “I can’t find that he’s ever even applied for any kind of apprenticeship, and he has never belonged to local 189 in Columbus, which is what he claims on his Facebook page.”
According to public records, Mr. Wurzelbacher has been subject to two liens, each over $1,000, one of which — a personal tax lien — is still outstanding.
Mr. Wurzelbacher is registered to vote in Lucas County under the name Samuel Joseph Worzelbacher.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/16/joe-in-the-spotlight/?em
His voter registration is in error, since his last name is misspelled.
Think he'll be turned away from the polls on election day?
A tax dodger who ducks the law to make a living.
Yep, bet he votes Republican.
He said he was born in the Toledo area, lived until he was 13 in the Florida Panhandle area, went to Springfield High School, and then entered the U.S. Air Force. He was stationed at an Air Force base in Alaska from 1992 until 1995. He said he was honorably discharged.
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081016/NEWS09/81...
This is getting beyond bizarre.
No wonder Joe called off the media tour, there were too many dangling threads and coincidences lying about.
One Alaskan AF base is Elmendorf, only FOURTEEN miles from Sarah's town of Wasilla.
And as for that unscripted moment that ended up on Fox News, the one at a rally where he questioned Sen. Barack Obama about the American Dream - and whether he'd have to pay higher taxes under Obama's plan?
Seems Joe, who is actually Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, told the conservative Web site familysecuritymatters.org that catching the Democratic presidential candidate off guard "was actually my intent."
For one, Wurzelbacher's expressed concern about paying more taxes looked a bit tarnished with the revelation that he owes Ohio about $1,200 in personal income taxes, according to the Lucas County Court of Common Pleas records. And there's a 2007 civil filing that shows a record for a $1,200 owed to a creditor, St. Charles Mercy Hospital.
So Wurzelbacher has an active lien on his property filed in January 2007, records from the Ohio Department of Taxation show.
He is registered as a Republican, and voted in the state's GOP primary in March, county elections records show. But he was previously registered, dating back to 2007, in the Natural Law Party.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/17/MNQ013J6JV.DTL
Hey, McCain, anymore cool stories about your shill?
Keep 'em coming, Johnny Boy, this is better than most of the swill that's on TV.