Poor Joe the Plumber Looks Lonely at His Own Book Signing

Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville

Never have I longed to be in DC so much as reading about this splendid event.

Joe the Multi-Faceted Hat-Wearer puts on his "Writin' Hat" to sign autographs last night at a Borders in DC, where "about 11 people wandered into the rows of seats set up hopefully in the basement" who he addressed "from behind a lectern and with a microphone … that seemed unnecessarily formal."

Never have I longed to be in DC so much as reading about this splendid event:

The only heat generated by Joe's appearance last night came when a young man named Jabari Zakiya recounted great moments in American racism (slavery, annihilation of Native Americans, segregation, etc.) and asked Wurzelbacher if the "hegemony" of the white man in America is "doomed" now that five states and the District of Columbia have majority minority populations.

Joe replied that he believes "our American heritage is being torn apart" by flag burners, critics of the military, and those who mock Christian values. He expressed his admiration for patriotic immigrants, and said he dislikes terms like African American and Asian American ("We're all Americans," he said). For some reason, he concluded by saying, "America has always been a kick-butt, take-names kind of country."

Wow.

The event was scheduled to last three hours, but ended after 55 minutes, with Joe having sold a total of five books.

Barack Obama and a plunger: He might not want to remember this photo

—Bob Secter

January 19, 2009

Before he was even a senator, let alone president-elect, then-unknown Barack Obama was, at a 2003 St. Patrick's Day parade, a plunger wrangler. (Photo courtesy Mats Selen)

Take that, Joe the Plumber: Here's evidence that the soon-to-be leader of the free world knows his way around a plunger.

This very unpresidential photo of Barack Obama, blown up to poster size, will be rolling down Pennsylvania Avenue on Tuesday along with the most unorthodox participants of the inaugural parade: the World Famous Lawn Rangers, a 28-year-old Central Illinois-based precision lawn mower drill team.

"We are the whoopee cushion of the parade," declared Ranger veteran Tom Bruno, a member of the Champaign City Council.

Obama met the Rangers in 2003 at Chicago's St. Patrick's Day Parade when he was just launching his bid for the U.S. Senate. As they joked around, the little-known candidate grabbed one of the plungers that Ranger leaders use in lieu of batons. Ranger Mats Selen, a University of Illinois physics professor, snapped a picture, which everybody promptly forgot about until Obama was elected plunger-carrier-in-chief.

Then, on a lark, Ranger founder Pat Monahan of Arcola applied to march in the inaugural parade, and somebody on the parade committee apparently had a sense of whimsy.

The 48-mower contingent will include one topped with a 5-foot replica of the Washington Monument, another with a well-endowed mannequin wearing a T-shirt declaring "D.C. or bust," and another called "Obama the self-starter." It features two hands emerging from the mower and grabbing the starter rope.

The group, which calls the new president "Mow-Bama," is selling the photo on T-shirts, aprons and the like at www.zazzle.com

/tombruno. Also available is kitsch with the Ranger inaugural credo: "Bringing dignity back to Washington."

—Bob Secter

Joe the Plumber to become war correspondent

TOLEDO, Ohio: Joe the Plumber is taking on a new job.

The Ohio man, who became famous during the U.S. presidential campaign after asking Barack Obama about his tax plan, is heading to Israel as a war correspondent for a conservative Web site called pjtv.com.

Dubbed "Joe the Plumber" by McCain's campaign, Samuel "Joe" Wurzelbacher was held up as an example of an American worker who would be hurt economically by Obama's election.

Wurzelbacher says he'll spend 10 days covering the fighting and explaining why Israeli forces are mounting attacks against Hamas.

He tells WNWO-TV in Toledo that he wants "go over there and let their 'Average Joes' share their story."

Wurzelbacher later joined Republican John McCain on the campaign trail.

At one stop, Wurzelbacher agreed with a McCain supporter who asked if he believed a vote for Obama was a vote for the death of Israel.

Joe the Plumber: Not a Licensed Plumber

Plumber Joe Wurzelbacher watches the presidential candidate debate in his home in Ohio on Oct. 15, 2008. (Lori King/Toledo Blade)

Updated 3:20 p.m.
By Robert Barnes
Joe the Plumber is not exactly a plumber, he's "not even close" to making the kind of money that would result in higher taxes from Democrat Barack Obama's proposals and has such an aversion to taxes that a lien was filed against him by the state of Ohio.

Such is the whirlwind of information that has come out about Joe Wurzelbacher of Holland, Ohio, since Republican John McCain made him famous in last night's debate. McCain mentioned him more than 20 times to use him as a symbol of hard-working Americans who would be hurt by Obama's tax policies. Obama and Wurzelbacher met earlier in the week in Toledo, where Wurzelbacher said Obama's plans to raise taxes on those making $250,000 a year or more would penalize him in his plans to buy the plumbing business for which he works.

Wurzelbacher since then has been on Fox News, interviewed by CBS's Katie Couric and appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Not all the attention has been welcomed. Wurzelbacher, 34, told the Associated Press that he was not a licensed plumber. Because he works for a small company that does residential work, he said, he doesn't need to be licensed.

Wurzelbacher, whose legal name is Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, owes the state of Ohio $1,182 in personal income taxes, according to tax records that show a lien for that amount filed against him in January 2007.

Wurzelbacher said he is of modest means, but worried Obama's tax plans would eventually hurt him. "You see my house. I don't have a lot of bells and whistles in here, really. My truck's a couple of years old and I'm going to have it for the next 10 years probably. So I don't see [Obama] helping me out,'' he told reporters this morning.

He also sounded concerned about the attention he is receiving. "I'm completely flabbergasted with this whole thing and just hope I'm not making too much of a fool of myself and hope I can get my message out there," he said.