Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

This fight is for everything.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

“In this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.”

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2008 / Say It Ain’t So, Joe

Say It Ain’t So, Joe

by | 71 Comments

This post is in: 

This, if true, is just pretty damned funny:

Two readers with access to the Ohio voter file say that Joe Wurzelbacher’s inluence on this cycle will be limited in one way: He doesn’t appear to be registered to vote.

(And yes, the freelance opposition research on Joe began before the debate ended.)

That would be typical of the zaniness of this election.

*** Update ***

According to you guys, he was on GMA and stated he is registered, so one of the possible great acts of comedy this election has been foiled.

Reader Interactions

71Comments

  2. 2.

    JL

    On Good Morning America, Joe the Plumber said that he is registered. Maybe he registered with ACORN.

  3. 3.

    Ted

    Who are these middle-aged morons who aren’t registered to vote? If I change address, that’s one of the things I make sure to do right away. And I’m closer to the ‘not reliable voter’ age group.

  5. 5.

    chopper

    this sure was a wacky debate. fuck alternative energy, just figure out a way to make power from mccain’s incessant blinking.

  6. 6.

    Comrade Jake

    He seemed like a typical Ohioan on GMA this morning: concerned about the Mexicans coming across the border.

    I’m not joking. He wants the borders sealed, and mentioned how badly Mexicans treat illegal immigrants, when all we do is give them a bus ride home.

  11. 11.

    MattF

    Joe reminds me that my dad had a special, honored category consisting of "People I enjoy staying away from". Gosh, I miss that old man sometimes…

  13. 13.

    Comrade Darkness

    Show me a small business owner working 96 hours a week and I’ll show you someone psychologically incapable of delegating.

    I’m willing to bet dollars for donuts that he does every stupid thing himself, even the specialized small stuff that takes an Average Joe, such as himself, 3-4 times longer. It’s a psychosis somewhere between control freak and untrusting of the quality of anyone’s work but your own, even in things way outside their own expertise.

    I bet if he contracted to an accountant for 2 hours a week, that would save him 6 hours. If he contracted to an answering service for scheduling, he’d save another 2 on the phone, and not need to get interrupted. If he and two other plumbers came up with an night call coverage agreement, he’d get better sleep, without cutting into his business, because on the nights he’d be on, he’d get 3x the work. I bet he fixes his own truck too, instead of taking it to a mechanic.

    I’ve seen his type many many times, I don’t feel sorry for him, he lives that way by choice.

  14. 14.

    Comrade Stuck

    @Billy Bob Neck:

    LOL, your blog is some fairly solid spoof Mr. Neck. In the Funhouse, we’d call it some kind of wicked scary. What do you think of Bolshevikism, As opposed to Bushevikism?

  15. 15.

    Comrade Jake

    @Comrade Darkness:

    I’m willing to bet dollars for donuts

    I’ve seen this turn of phrase a lot lately. I like it, but I’ve almost no idea what it means. You’re willing to give up your donuts?

  17. 17.

    Bob In Pacifica

    Maybe Joe the Plumber registered with one of those Republican groups that routinely throw away registrations. Or maybe Joe the Plumber was purged from the rolls by an overzealous Republican commissioner. Or maybe he registered as Joe the Plumber and he was flagged.

  20. 20.

    Comrade Jake

    @John Cole:

    Is this a Midwestern thing? Because in the Northeast, the donuts are pretty fucking good. Dollars for donuts sounds more like a good trade than betting something for nothing.

  21. 21.

    John D

    Why does anyone believe what people say?

    Some blog reports he’s not registered. He claims to be on GMA.

    Here’s a thought — go check

    It’s the entire OH State registered voter file, all 303 MB of it. Search for him. Try to figure out which one he is (there are several ‘Wurzelbacher, Joseph’ registrants.) *Then* decide who is telling the truth.

    Toledo, OH is in Lucas County. You can grab the smaller file and just check that one, but there are no Joseph Wurzelbacher’s in there (Phyllis, Frank, Robert, Kay, but no Joe/Joseph).

    So, either he is NOT from Toledo, or he is lying. Which is it?

  22. 22.

    Josh Huaco

    So, either he is NOT from Toledo, or he is lying. Which is it?

    And more importantly, what do his countertops look like?

  23. 23.

    gypsy howell

    So, either he is NOT from Toledo, or he is lying.

    He’s lying AND he’s a self-proclaimed member of the stupidest fucking group of people in America – the Great Undecideds. AND now he’s McCain’s new BFF.

    This election is awesome.

  24. 24.

    Comrade Darkness

    @John Cole: Basically means I am so confident I will wager something to your nothing.

    I’d even flip the bet around and bring homemade donuts to the wager. Between five minutes and fifteen minutes out of the oil, when their wondrous heated bready cinnamon and sugaryness are assaulting the senses, they are worth more than a dollar.

  25. 25.

    Dennis - SGMM

    Try to figure out which one he is (there are several ‘Wurzelbacher, Joseph’ registrants.)

    So that’s the canny McCain’s new strategy: he’s going to sew up the Joseph Wurzelbacher demographic. I’ll bet that Obama is kicking himself for not thinking of it first.

  26. 26.

    rob

    Dollars to doughnuts; I’m sure the saying has been around since the time that a doughnut cost a penny.

  27. 27.

    Bob In Pacifica

    There is a story going around the netses that Joe is the son-in-law of Charles Keating and was a Republican plant. Don’t know about the Keating connection, boy would that be rich (in more ways than one), but the fact that McCain could pull out this Joe from nowhere strongly suggests that he was a plant and this way yet another dirty trick that backfired on the Rethugs.

    Hope someone does some more investigating into this alleged plumber who’s bagging a quarter of a million a year.

  31. 31.

    Jamey

    Of course in non-election years, John McCain only speaks to plumbers through one of his household staff.

  32. 32.

    Hyperion

    but the fact that McCain could pull out this Joe from nowhere strongly suggests that he was a plant and this way yet another dirty trick that backfired on the Rethugs.

    um, i thought joe was "discovered" by Obama.
    some of the comments here reek of wingnut reasoning.

  33. 33.

    orogeny

    Why don’t the media point out obvious misconceptions?

    When I saw the"Joe the Plumber" video yesterday, having owned my own business in the past, my first thought was: “He said the business he is considering buying grosses $250,000 per year. So, I’d guess that the owner of that business makes $100-$150k per year at best assuming he does the majority of the work himself and keeps material and labor costs down." So, I went to the Obama Tax Calculator and entered those numbers (I entered him as a HoH w/2 dependents and a $50k mortgage). It showed that Joe is going to get a $804 TAX CUT under Obama’s tax plan! It seems like some enterprising reporter might figure this out on his/her own and ask Joe why he doesn’t want his taxes cut. Instead, people across the country will look at Joe, see themselves in him, and assume that Obama is going to raise their taxes.

    Isn’t it incumbent upon reporters to point out the actual facts of a story, rather than simply going along with the meme that has been created?

  34. 34.

    orogeny

    um, i thought joe was "discovered" by Obama.

    Actually Joe said that he was playing ball with his kids when Obama "showed up in his neighborhood." So he decided to go over and confront him about his tax plan.

  35. 35.

    Comrade Stuck

    During a MSNBC interview this morning, Mr. Joe the Plumber enlightened us on his views toward the Iraq Invasion.

    "i don’t know if you guys are christains or not, but it’s like coming to jesus" – says this about our invasion of iraq and bringing "freedom" to iraq.

    "Say it ain’t so, Joe the Wingnut.

  38. 38.

    Jamey

    Hope someone does some more investigating into this alleged plumber who’s bagging a quarter of a million a year.

    Bob:

    I know plumbers and other tradesmen personally. They own vacation houses, boats, and their wives drive Lexus SUVs. And good for them.

    Now, I live in an affluent area–NJ’s Bergen County–so plumbers do pretty well in my neck of the woods. (More to the point, I have a hard time getting one to come to my house for a job that will bill less than $500.) $250k is a pretty fat paycheck, anywhere you cash it–and I’d wager that $250k in Joe the Plumber’s hometowh of Toledo, OH is the equivalent of $450k in, say, Engelwood Cliffs, NJ.

    Plumbing is a valuable skill. Plumbers make shitloads of money, as they should. But can we PLEASE put to lie the idea that plumbers are merely humble working stiffs. I mean, saying that someone’s a plumber, and therefore better acquainted with the day-to-day needs of all working stiffs is about as relevant as, say, someone claiming that being a POW somehow better qualifies him or her to be the LOTFW**(TM)

    **Leader of the Free World

  39. 39.

    Paul L.

    I suspect that all the progressives centrists here and the media outlets (Time/NY Times) that complained about Swift-Boating of Graeme Frost will applaud/demand the investigation/digging up of dirt/opposition research/smearing of Joe the Plumber.
    I also suspect that Joe the Plumber will win a worst person in the world award from NBC’s progressive modern day Edward R. Murrow.

  41. 41.

    justme

    Aww, crap. Joe’s a moron.

    COURIC: Well, he supposedly will raise taxes only on people who make over $250,000 a year. Would you be in that category?

    WURZELBACHER: Not right now at presently, but, you know, question, so he’s going to do that now for people who make $250,000 a year. When’s he going to decide that $100,000 is too much, you know? I mean, you’re on a slippery slope here. You vote on somebody who decides that $250,000 and you’re rich? And $100,000 and you’re rich? I mean, where does it end? You know, that’s – people got to ask that question.

    I guess he’s okay with McCain’s 54Mil=middle class thingie.

  44. 44.

    justme

    Because, y’know, when I win the lottery tomorrow, I don’t want the gubvermint taking away all my hard earned money.

    argh

  45. 45.

    Dreggas

    Heh, it appears he owes back taxes and isn’t even a licensed plumber.

    And Paul L. there’s a difference between looking through the windows of some family’s house trying to spy on a kid and looking up publicly available information on an adult who made a point of being a douche.

  46. 46.

    Paul L.

    Hope you’re ready for our new black president, Paul L.

    I am ready for your new black president.

    This is surely small of me, but if Obama wins, I plan on giving him as much of a chance as the Democrats gave George Bush. I will gleefully forward every paranoid anti-Obama rumor that I see, along with YouTube footage of his verbal missteps. I will laugh and email heinous anti-Obama photoshop jobs, and maybe even learn photoshop myself to create some. I’ll buy anti-Obama books, and maybe even a "Not My President" t-shirt. I’m sure that the mainstream bookstores won’t carry them, but I’ll be on the lookout for anti-Obama calendars and stuff like that. I will not wish America harm, and if the country is hurt (economically, militarily, or diplomatically) I will truly mourn. But i will also take some solace that it occurred under Obama’s watch, and will find every reason to blame him personally and fan the flames.

  47. 47.

    Jeff

    @Paul L.: Like how everyone tried to get behind the President after 9/11 and he wasted that opportunity with the Iraq war and telling the American people they can help the effort by going shopping. Democrats were ready to give him a chance, but Bush wasted that opportunity.

  48. 48.

    Paul L.

    @Dreggas:
    Keep rationalizing.
    If I remember correctly our lady of perpetual outrage drove by the Frost’s house. Do you have a link showing someone was looking through the windows?
    Or is that how you characterize the evil Reich-wing looking up publicly available information on the Parents?

  49. 49.

    jake 4 that 1

    @Dreggas: The thing that struck me about the Frost Freak-out was the way the fRighties (supposed protectors of children from murderous, lecherous DemoNcRats) didn’t seem to get that Graeme was a child. There was a lot of screaming that by appearing on TV he "Asked for it." But even if we can accept that he "asked for it," sane human beings would add "But he’s a kid, and only a sick S.O.B. attacks kids." Meanwhile Stalkin’ Malkin is hanging around his school like something out of a Fatal Attraction spin-off.

    This week we had RedState and Cornfederate Wankee gleefully discussing Obama’s boyhood "affair," with an adult.

    I can’t even get my head to a place where I can see how one would go there. Is it because they spend so much time worrying about womb and snowflake babies that they think a person is an adult once they dry off?

    Or are they just a bunch of sick fucks?

  53. 53.

    Scrutinizer

    Cool. The GOS is in full on Malkin Graeme Frost mode over Joe.
     
    Joe was nothing much, but the crap being spewed about him on the blogs is going to cause a real shitstorm.

  54. 54.

    OniHanzo

    @Paul L

    Oh noes!! You endorse wearing a "Not My President" T-shirt?!! I’m not sure the country can endure such dissent, you dirty America-hater you…especially after all the fellatio you dipshits have given the current White House occupant.

    And yet strangely.. miraculously…I think we’ll survive.

    *snicker*

  55. 55.

    Punchy

    This is surely small of me, but if Obama wins, I plan on giving him as much of a chance as the Democrats gave George Bush. I will gleefully forward every paranoid anti-Obama rumor that I see, along with YouTube footage of his verbal missteps. I will laugh and email heinous anti-Obama photoshop jobs, and maybe even learn photoshop myself to create some. I’ll buy anti-Obama books, and maybe even a "Not My President" t-shirt. I’m sure that the mainstream bookstores won’t carry them, but I’ll be on the lookout for anti-Obama calendars and stuff like that. I will not wish America harm, and if the country is hurt (economically, militarily, or diplomatically) I will truly mourn. But i will also take some solace that it occurred under Obama’s watch, and will find every reason to blame him personally and fan the flames.

    Oh god….PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let this happen. I hope Glennnnn puts up a "No N#ggers!" sign on his fence gate. I hope he hangs nooses from his tree. I hope he photoshops some cotton fields around Obama’s inauguration pics. PLEASE show the world what a fucking piece of complete dogshit you truly are.

  56. 56.

    Paul L.

    @Dreggas:

    Two words…Granite Countertops.

    ?????
    Google

    Shortly after the Sun article began circulating around the blogosphere people started commenting on it. Someone at Free Republic (one of those right-wing blogs) looked at the picture of the family in their kitchen and speculated that the counter-tops look like granite, which The Associated Press dutifully reported on October 10th, adding that the family had responded that they’re concrete. That tidbit is presented in the AP article as the only question conservative bloggers had raised. That alone could be laughed off, and if your only source was AP you’d have probably thought that’s all there was to the story.

    So commenting on a picture taken in the Frost’s kitchen in news article is "looking through the windows"?

  57. 57.

    Comrade Darkness

    This is surely small of me, but if Obama wins, I plan on giving him as much of a chance as the Democrats gave George Bush.

    After he steals the election and gets appointed by the supreme court, you mean? Can’t imagine why things started out with everyone so enraged… such a mystery.

    Oh, yeah, and then he treated everyone to a stunning demonstration of how stupid he believed everyone was by claiming an "overwhelming mandate" for his craptastic policies of moving wealth to his rich buddies.

  58. 58.

    Jeff

    @Paul L.: Yeah and righties were complaining that Clinton only got elected because of Perot. Just change your quote from Obama to Clinton and you have 1992.

  59. 59.

    OniHanzo

    @Paul L

    The ‘countertops’ issue was just a "fair game" wingnut hysteria Malkin fed into, up to and including the school these kids went to. I’m pretty sure you don’t want to go down this path. But maybe you’re stupid enough to try.

    When a family and Democrat political leaders drag a child down to Washington at 6 in the morning to read a script written by Senate Democrat staffers on a crusade to overturn a presidential veto, someone might have questions about the family’s claims. The newspapers don’t want to do their jobs. The vacuum is being filled.

    If you don’t want questions, don’t foist these children onto the public stage.

    Fight your battles like adults and stop hiding behind youngsters dragging around red wagons filled with your talking points.

    Update 2:50pm Eastern: I just returned from a visit to Frost’s commercial property near Patterson Park in Baltimore. It’s a modest place. Talked to one of the tenants, Mike Reilly, who is a talented welder. He said he had known the Frosts for 10 years. Business is good, he told me, though he characterized Frost as “struggling.”

    I also passed by the Frosts’ rowhouse. There was an “01 – 20 -09″ bumper sticker plastered on the door and a newer model GMC Suburban parked directly in front of the house. I’ve seen guesstimates of the house’s worth in the $400,000-plus range. Those are high.

  60. 60.

    A la lanterne les aristos!

    So, from the logic in that quote, I’m getting that JtP is simply against taxing anyone? (Reverse slippery slope)

    Gawd, libertarians are annoying.

  61. 61.

    Comrade Tax Analyst

    John Cole
    @Comrade Jake: I will bet my dollars(which are worth something) to your donuts (which are worth nothing) that I am right.
    Basically means I am so confident I will wager something to your nothing.

    But what happens if(when?) donuts become worth more than dollars?

    Will one have to put up 2 or 3 (or eleventy-five bazzillion?) dollars vs. 1 donut?

  62. 62.

    moe99

    It’s now been reported that Wurzelbacher is registered but his name is misspelled. Seems that he has fallen into the Republicans’ trap.

  63. 63.

    Comrade Stuck

    This is surely small of me, but if Obama wins, I plan on giving him as much of a chance as the Democrats gave George Bush.

    After 9-11 Bush’s approval rating was in the high 80 percent range, and it stayed pretty much that way until things started going badly in Iraq in mid to late 2003. Obviously, there were many democrats who were giving him their approval, which likely contributed to his galactic size hubris and stoopid — that deadly combo that has led us to where we are now as a country.

  64. 64.

    LiberalTarian

    I am pretty uncool with the treatment Joe the Plumber is getting from the left and from newspapers. They’ve looked up his tax records, voter registration, etc. I’m sure any second now we’ll hear about his counter tops.

    I thought we were better than that?

    Dignity and respect start "at home." Let’s not become that which we hate, eh?

  66. 66.

    Church Lady

    I first found this blog via a link from Andrew Sullivan during the Grahme Frost/SCHIP controversy. I was absolutely outraged at what the right wing nutjobs were doing to this family. Sadly, I now see that those residing on the far left of the political spectrum are no better. Asshats, all of you.

  67. 67.

    OniHanzo

    @LiberalTarian: Agreed. He’s just some two-bit McCain supporter who decided he’d cowboy up and ask Obama a question. His personal address, et al shouldn’t be part of the grist.

    I’m much more interested in seeing McCain hit on his whole "healthcare for women is a pro-abortion farce" bullshit.

  68. 68.

    Quicksand

    I think the idea is that doughnuts are shaped like zeroes. Err, actually the other way around.

    As in, "I’ll bet you, dollars to metaphorical doughnuts that represent zeroes."

    Mmmm, metaphorical doughnuts.

  70. 70.

    priscianus jr

    John Cole wrote:
    "I have to say at that I am relieved that McCain had a better night, as there is still a chance that he could pull it out and win. Anything can happen, and it would be nice to think that if Obama does lose, the next administration would not be a total disaster."

    WTF??????

    John, this is about the strangest statement I have ever read on your blog. I keep thinking I must have missed something, but as you wrote it I can’t construe it any other way. I know you were trying to set up a contrast with the quoted text as "delusional," but it falls a little flat as you seem to be trying sound delusional yourself.
    I actually agree that McCain had a better night, but that’s just relative, the result was still utterly pathetic; besides which, Obama had a better night too, so he still wiped the floor with McCain. How on the basis of what McCain did last night you could believe "there is still a chance that he could pull it out and win" is beyond my comprehension. (There may be a chance, but not on the basis of anything I saw in the debate.) But why you would be "relieved" by this is even more incomprehensible, or how on that gossamer basis you could think that a McCain administration would be anything other than a total disaster, is a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Are you the same John Cole?

  71. 71.

    justme

    This is surely small of me, but if Obama wins, I plan on giving him as much of a chance as the Democrats gave George Bush.

    Seems to me we gave him more than plenty in the way of a chance. He fucked it up repeatedly. Again and again. Drove the country off a cliff. Time and time again the Democrats gave Bush everything he ever wanted, and at worst wrote a few Sternly Worded Letters® anytime he wiped his ass with the Constitution, turned every branch of government into a partisan arm of the Republican electoral machine, ignored subpoenas, told any and everyone else to ignore subpoenas, had the DOJ state publicly that it would not, under any circumstance, support or enforce subpoenas, suspend Habeas, imprison American citizens by fiat without benefit of due process, told FISA to diddle itself with a rake, but quietly, please, so as not to disturb Barney’s damn lunch, and generally acted like a complete turd.

    To hear one of you try to lecture anybody about civility to the Office of the President after unleashing the hounds in an utterly unprecedented manner against Clinton, attacking him year after year, spending seventy million dollars on the biggest legal boondoggle ever, all for a blowjob, and then impeaching the bastard after realizing you really had nothing, just makes me alternately ill and doubled over with uncontrollable laughter.

    You sacks of filth already rolled up the carpet on giving anybody with a D by their name half a chance more than fifteen years ago. For you to pretend to any whisker of honor in your politics after defining the low road for so long is simply absurd.

    Y’know that rake I mentioned before? Yah…

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