Joe The Plumber Running For Congress

Samuel Wurzhelbacher is running for Congress:

Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, better known as “Joe the Plumber,” has taken steps toward launching a bid for a House seat in Ohio.

Wurzelbacher filed candidacy papers with the Federal Election Commission on Friday, indicating he would run as a Republican from the state’s 9th district.

“Joe the Plumber” emerged on the national stage during the 2008 presidential campaign when he pressed then-Sen. Barack Obama over his plan for small business growth. The then-Republican presidential ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin quickly capitalized on the exchange. Wurzelbacher, who it was later revealed was not a licensed plumber, appeared at campaign events with the GOP nominees.

The district that Wurzhelbacher is running in is safely Democratic, so this really is rather pointless. Nonetheless, I’m sure we can count on Joe the Plumber to say something sufficiently stupid to keep us entertained.

Update: Dave Weigel takes note of just how Democratic this district is:

In 2008 the district went for Barack Obama by 36 points, but in 2010, Rep. Marcy Kaptur only held off Republican candidate Rich Iott by 18 points. This was after weeks of Joshua Green scoops about how Iott liked to wear Nazi duds. In 2012, thanks to a Republican gerrymander, the district is even more Democratic-leaning. According to David Wasserman, who handicaps the House for the Cook Political Report, what was a D+10 seat — meaning it voted roughly 10 points bluer than the country at large — has become a D+17 seat, with either Kaptur or Dennis Kucinich emerging from a Democratic primary.

Come to think of it, a Wurzelbacher-Kucinich General Election would be pretty funny.

FILED UNDER: 2012 Election, Congress, US Politics, , , , , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Jay Tea says:

    I’m coming up with a list of Members of Congress whom Joe would be an improvement upon.

    Kucinich is definitely on that list.

    I’m closing in on triple digits…

    J.

  2. legion says:

    I’m really curious as to who’s financing this run. Assuming, as you say, that it’s in a district where he’s doomed to failure, this can’t be anything other than some wannabe kingmaker testing the waters for a “Joe the Plumber” brand. I mean, if he was a millionaire I could understand it as a vanity run, but Wurselbacher simply doesn’t have the cash or the political savvy to be doing this on his own… whose tag is he sporting?

  3. legion,

    People file to run for Congress all the time without any big bucks backing them. I am fairly confident in stating that he will not be alone in running the GOP nomination for that district.

  4. Jay Tea says:

    At this point, I doubt Joe has much money at all. I suspect he’s hoping to parlay his fame/infamy into serious money.

    We’ll see, when the first reporting period comes round.

    J.

  5. Hey Norm says:

    This will definitely elevate the quality of the institution.
    I mean…here’s a guy that lies about his name…and of course he lied about buying the business he worked for…and he lied about the impact of Obama’s proposed (at that time)policies on that business. He’s made for Republican politics.

    “Social Security’s a joke. I have parents. I don’t need another set of parents called the government. Let me take my money and invest it how I please. Social Security, I’ve never believed in, don’t like it, hate that it’s forced on me.”

  6. In the future, everyone will refuse to get off the stage after their 15 minutes is up.

  7. Jay Tea says:

    No discussion of Joe The Plumber should ever go without the only significant thing out of that whole incident: the unscripted, off-the-cuff comments of President Obama:

    “My attitude is that if the economy’s good for folks from the bottom up, it’s gonna be good for everybody. If you’ve got a plumbing business, you’re gonna be better off if you’re gonna be better off if you’ve got a whole bunch of customers who can afford to hire you, and right now everybody’s so pinched that business is bad for everybody and I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.” (emphasis added)

    I’ve always thought the reason why so much was heaped on Joe — witness the witless Norm’s pointless attacks — was to keep people from paying attention to what Obama said. “Lied about his name” — is there anyone who DOESN’T know someone who goes by their middle name, for whatever reason? God, that’s so stupid.

    Anyway, that’s Obama in a nutshell — the job of government is to “spread the wealth around.” After, of course, the right people decide whose wealth gets spread, how much gets spread, and who it gets spread to.

    J.

  8. WR says:

    @Jay Tea: So are you saying that Obama was wrong? That a plumbing business won’t do better if they’ve got a whole bunch of customers who want to hire them? Or do you think he’s wrong when he said that everyone is so pinched right now that business is bad for everybody?

    Come on, Jay, explain to us how what Obama said is wrong. I know you like to pretend that a phrase in that paragraph means he’s a secret commie, but tell me exactly how what he said doesn’t exactly describe the problem businesses face today.

  9. Jay Tea says:

    @WR: What a surprise. You either didn’t read my last paragraph, or couldn’t understand it.

    Back to your kennel, lickspittle.

    J.

  10. MM says:

    No discussion thread where Jay Tea posts can go by without a “hey, look over here at my attempt at derailment” post. Usually it involves Obama. I see we are par for the course In this one.

  11. legion says:

    Charming, Jay. It’s pretty clear from that last paragraph that you don’t mind the gov’t “sharing the wealth”, so long as you & yours are the ones who get to decide the sharing. What WR is (and Obama was) pointing out is that when you slant that redistribution so that one side (and their rich buddies) _always_ get the lion’s share, it actually turns out bad for _everyone_. Since your greed-driven, short-term philosophy appears to boil down to FUIGM, let me say: FU.

  12. anjin-san says:

    No surprise that “Joe the Plumber” resonates with Jay Tea. A lifelong nobody with delusions of grandure who managed to parlay 15 minutes of undeserved fame into a revenue stream. A real tea party icon.

  13. Jay Tea says:

    @legion: Congrats, you got my beliefs exactly 180 degrees out of whack. Well done.

    J.

  14. WR says:

    @Jay Tea: No, I summed up your last paragraph — you’re pretending to misunderstand one phrase in order to call him a commie. Except that’s being far too generous to you. You don’t really misunderstand the phrase — you’ve seen that this was a standard Fox/Rush Limbaugh attack on Obama three years ago, so you’re repeating it as an approved talking point.

    If you wanted to convince anyone, you might at least have snipped off the majority of the quote in which it becomes crystal clear what he means — and that it’s not what you claim. But you’re apparently too lazy to do even that, and merely hope that others are just as lazy, and will only read what you’ve boldfaced.

  15. Jay Tea says:

    @WR: Good lord, just when I thought you couldn’t get any dumber, you do it.

    I put the full quote precisely because I knew that if I didn’t do so, you’d say that I selectively quoted it, so I put it in — but emphasized the significant part.

    And I’m sure you don’t remember the “Joe The Plumber” story, at least not honestly, so let me recap: Obama made an unscheduled stop in Joe’s neighborhood and went up to Joe’s yard. Joe asked his question, and Obama made his unscripted answer — and that immediately unleashed the full media/liberal “destroy the heretic” wave. Every aspect of his life was examined and revealed — his divorce and child custody records, his employment record, even the fact that he doesn’t like his first name and goes by his middle name. One state official (a Democrat and an Obama volunteer) even dug through court records to see if he was behind on his child support — he wasn’t. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversial_Ohio_database_searches_of_Joe_Wurzelbacher

    There was absolutely no reason to shred any bit of privacy this guy had — except to utterly discredit him and make everyone forget the actual conversation he had with Obama. The conversation where Obama, sans TelePrompter, gave us a bit of insight into his beliefs. That the government’s tax policies should be to “spread the wealth around,” making things “fairer.”

    What does it matter whether or not Mr. Wurzelbacher’s ambition was immediately realistic, or what name he prefers to use? Not a damned thing. But that was the ONLY thing the media wanted to discuss after that single conversation.

    Now Wurzelbacher says he wants to run for Congress. I say we could have worse. I look at Rangel and Pelosi and Kucinich and Waters and Jackson Lee, and say we have worse.

    Now back to your kennel, lickspittle. And learn to do your homework.

    J.

  16. An Interested Party says:

    Jay Tea is someone who likes to talk about how certain people live rent-free in other people’s heads…considering how often he derails threads with his attempts to trash the President, it’s quite obvious who lives rent-free in Jay Tea’s head…

  17. Jay Tea says:

    @An Interested Party: (Quick check of Obama’s spending habits)

    …Christ, I wish it was “free..”

    J.

  18. An Interested Party says:

    @Jay Tea: Awwww, but don’t think of that as rent, think of it as the Man holding a gun to your head…I guess the President just has squatter’s rights in your head…

  19. Jay Tea says:

    @An Interested Party: Now there’s a scary image… he’s not only living in my head, he’s holding a gun. There ain’t no way he could miss.

    J.

  20. Jay Tea says:

    @Hey Norm: Come on, explain how Joe “lied” about his name. Tell us all how dishonest and deceptive it is for a guy named “Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher” to go by “Joe.”

    Then explain how the hell it’s anyone’s business what his name is, or why his little chat with Obama justified state officials going on a fishing expedition through state records looking for dirt.

    Come on, Norm, I know you can do it.

    J.

  21. WR says:

    @Jay Tea: Now Jay Tea, having made a complete fool of himself, launches into full Republican self-pity mode.

    All in order to change the subject away from the fact that the Obama quote obviously doesn’t mean what Jay claims it means.

    Whine about the meanies in the Obama-controlled media all you want — but this has nothing to do with the point you claimed to be making — although, as always, you claim it does.

    You still have not responded to my question about the substance of Obama’s quote. You squirm, you lie, you call me stupid for pointing out your complete lack of substance – but you can’t actually answer the point.

    It’s quite possible that you’re fooling yourself here. So that makes one.

  22. Jay Tea says:

    @WR: You’re lucky I feel sorry for the illiterate and the terminally stupid. Normally, I don’t repeat myself.

    Anyway, that’s Obama in a nutshell — the job of government is to “spread the wealth around.” After, of course, the right people decide whose wealth gets spread, how much gets spread, and who it gets spread to.

    And let me add one more: the right people get their cut of the wealth being spread.

    Like, for example, in the case of Solyndra.

    Back to your kennel, lickspittle.

    J.

  23. mantis says:

    Anyway, that’s Obama in a nutshell — the job of government is to “spread the wealth around.” After, of course, the right people decide whose wealth gets spread, how much gets spread, and who it gets spread to.

    Contrasting that with the wingnut view that the job of government is to push all of the wealth to a tiny percentage of the population, and let the rest fend for themselves in a solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short fight for survival. They’ve done a pretty good job of working toward that goal the past few decades, and have no intention of stopping.

  24. Jay Tea says:

    @mantis: Contrasting that with the wingnut view that the job of government is to push all of the wealth to a tiny percentage of the population, and let the rest fend for themselves in a solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short fight for survival.

    If you actually believe that, you’ve gone almost as nuts as Charles Johnson.

    J.

  25. WR says:

    @Jay Tea: Once again, and I suppose for the last time since this thread is about to drop away, you duck the question of whether you disagree with the rest of Obama’s statement.

  26. Jay Tea says:

    @WR: You really, really don’t get it, do you.

    The merits or flaws of the proposal are irrelevant — having the government making these decisions is a horrifically bad idea. For Christ’s sake, look at Solyndra — all in the name of “green energy,” a bunch of Democratic fundraisers got a shitload of taxpayer money to line their pockets. And it was all excused because it was all for green energy.

    The government picks winners and losers for incredibly bad reasons. And it’s always done on our dime.

    NOW will you go back to your kennel, lickspittle?

    J.

  27. mantis says:

    If you actually believe that, you’ve gone almost as nuts as Charles Johnson.

    Again with your Charles Johnson obsession. Get over it, man. He just doesn’t love you anymore. There are other wingnuts out there for you to play ball with, I promise.

    In any case, yes, I do believe that is the goal of much of the rightwing. Of course, I’m just basing that on their actions and proposals. You, on the other hand, have a bunch of out of context statements from the president upon which to base your opinions.

  28. Jay Tea says:

    @mantis: Fine, I’ll take you at your word.

    Contrasting that with the wingnut view that the job of government is to push all of the wealth to a tiny percentage of the population, and let the rest fend for themselves in a solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short fight for survival.

    No, that is what is called projection. You take the liberal side, invert it, and presume that that is the right’s side. What I’ve always heard — and believe — is that it is not the job to “push wealth” in either way.

    The alternative to “the government should do X” is NOT “the government should do the opposite of X.” Sometimes — hell, most of the time — it’s “the government should not do anything at all with regards to X.”

    You used to be fairly astute. You used to understand some of the basic tenets of conservatism and libertarianism. You didn’t agree with them, but you understood them. You didn’t used to go all knee-jerk liberal asshat and look to pick fights with me.

    If you see the old mantis, tell him I miss him. The dip going under his name now is an insult to the name.

    J.

  29. mantis says:

    What I’ve always heard — and believe — is that it is not the job to “push wealth” in either way.

    And to believe that you have to ignore their actions and policies for many decades. How much corporate welfare and how many tax loopholes for the rich and for corporations do you have to ignore to believe that? That, and the fact that right wing hates the social safety net so much they would like to do away with Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, insuring that most of us transfer most of our wealth to the health care industry, or just suffer and die earlier.

    It’s not projection, it is the inevitable result of the right wing’s desires. I’m sorry if you are too dim to recognize what you actually advocate.

    You used to understand some of the basic tenets of conservatism and libertarianism.

    I still do. Conservatives scarcely exist anymore in this country, and libertarians are, as they have always been, sociopaths.

    You didn’t used to go all knee-jerk liberal asshat and look to pick fights with me.

    I pick fights with you because while you used to have an original thought once in a while, you have since the election of a Democrat lost all recognition of reality, heartily endorse violent uprisings against your fellow citizens, and do little but spout mindless talking points anyone could hear on every wingnut talk radio station throughout the country. Basically, you’re an asshole. I treat you exactly as you deserve.

    If you see the old mantis, tell him I miss him.

    He’s right here. He only extends the courtesy to people with at least a shred of intellectual honesty. You are lacking.

  30. Jay Tea says:

    @mantis: I pick fights with you because while you used to have an original thought once in a while, you have since the election of a Democrat lost all recognition of reality, heartily endorse violent uprisings against your fellow citizens, and do little but spout mindless talking points anyone could hear on every wingnut talk radio station throughout the country. Basically, you’re an asshole. I treat you exactly as you deserve.

    “Violent uprisings” like the OWS movement? Or the assaults on the Tea Party folks? Or the Wisconsin occupation? Or the Verizon and Washington longshoreman’s strikes? Sorry, I was against all those.

    “Talk radio talking points?” I occasionally catch Dennis Miller, and slightly more frequently Howie Carr. If that’s what they’re saying, then maybe they’re lifting from me.

    “Asshole?” Hell, yes, I got those tendencies. I even let them loose every now and then. It’s part and parcel of being a blogger.

    What sent you wiggy towards me was when I got sick and tired of the threats from the left on the right and pointed out a few inconvenient truths: 1) the people doing the threatening are, by and large, vastly outgunned the people they’re threatening, and B) if the right was anywhere near as dangerous as those leftists say they are, then they’d have taken all those guns and gone after the threatening leftists. So it was my estimation that the accusing leftists were either lying or suicidal — and they’d be smart to knock it off before some of those armed right-wingers (not me — I’ve never owned a gun, never wanted one, probably never will) might decide to say “fine, they want it, let’s let them have it.”

    And ever since then, you’re so invested in your image of me that you have to do whatever you can to reinforce it, finding evidence that only supports your delusion after extensive torture.

    Whatever, dude. I feel no obligation to comply with your fantasies.

    J.

  31. WR says:

    @Jay Tea: Obama didn’t say anything about government at all. He talked about how businesses thrive when more people have money to hire them. You pulled all this nonsense about the government out of your ass, and then ducked the question yet again. What a bore you are.

  32. Jay Tea says:

    @WR: You even fail at failing. The CONTEXT of Obama’s remark was his tax policy. Joe wasn’t asking Obama his business advice (which would be so stupid, it’s something you’d do). As Sarah Palin put it, the only thing Obama’s ever run is his mouth. Joe asked about Obama’s tax policy, Obama answered by talking about how wonderful it is to spread the wealth around.

    Good lord, how can you be so stupid and still work a computer?

    J.

  33. WR says:

    @Jay Tea: Read your own quote, moron.

  34. Jay Tea says:

    @WR: Read the whole discussion, you frothing dolt.

    http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2008/10/spread-the-weal/

    The whole point of the discussion was Obama’s tax plans.

    Really, go back to your kennel, lickspittle. I didn’t think it possible, but you’re actually embarrassing yourself.

    J.