Blue Mass Group

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Is “Joe the Plumber” really related to Charles Keating? Talk about a backfire!!

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I mean, if this is true, it would be just astonishing.  Martin Eisenstadt, by the way, is a GOP operative and is no friend of Barack Obama. [UPDATE: A reader helpfully emailed me that there’s some question about who this Eisenstadt fellow really is.  That’s fine — the Wurzelbacher connection remains, and doesn’t depend on the identity of this particular blogger.  Carry on.]

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.

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  1. So let me get this straight, a Republican unlicensed plumber, that he really doesn’t make $250,000, but hopes to someday (that’s nice), is related to Charles Keating and daddy contributes big bucks to Republican candidates thinks that Obama’s tax plan will hurt him from buying a plumbing business?

    • Diane asked, “if those people should not be taxed additionally, even though they’re in the top 5% of America, what about people who make $1 million? Or $5 million?”

      “Well, I mean, quite honestly, why should they be penalized for being successful?” Wurzelbacher asked. “I mean, that’s what you’re telling me. That’s what it sounds like you’re saying. That’s wrong. Because you’re successful, you have to pay more than everybody else? …”

      <

      p>That’s not a crazy point of view.  It just happens to be one that, at present, the majority of Americans don’t happen to share.

      • A higher tax rate for a millionaire doesn’t mean the guy’s still not a millionaire. There’s still PLENTY of incentive for making ungodly amounts of money. It’s called…having ungodly amounts of money. Higher tax rate, or not.

        <

        p>$250,000/year…god I WISH I had that problem.

  2. Maybe Joe can get his plumbing license and help lay that Alaskan pipeline that McCain/Palin keep talking about. You know, the one that’s still on the drafting paper…

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    p>Maybe McCain’s team to learn to vet people. Turns out Joe is a registered republican.

    <

    p>Bladerunner

    • I’m a registered Democrat, because the state in which I live requires that registration to vote in the primary, and I wanted to vote for Hillary. Eight years ago, I was a registered Republican for a similar reason.

      <

      p>Am I a Democrat?  No.  Am I a Republican?  No.

  3. Joe the Republican Plumber may have a dog sledding brother in Wasilla, Alaska.

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    p>http://www.progressohio.org/pa…

    <

    p>Joe the Plumber? Nope. Joe the Tax Dodger. Joe the Relative of Charles Keating. Hilarious.

    <

    p>http://theobfuscationreport.bl…

    <

    p>snip:
    Joe the Plumber appears to be Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher.

    <

    p>According to Lucas County, Ohio court records, there is a Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher who has a state income tax lien of $1,182.98. According to the court record he lives on a street that is part of the Lincoln Green subdivision.

    <

    p>And Joe the Plumber’s Father appears to be Robert Wurzelbacher right wing fanatic and contributor who is the son in law of….. you’re not going to believe this. Charles Keating.

    <

    p>This just gets better and better.

    <

    p>Oh there’s also a Joe the Twice Divorced Wife Beater.

    <

    p>And The Joe I Haven’t Had a Plumbing License Since 2002.

    <

    p>I wonder which of these will turn out to be the guy doing all the talk shows?

    <

    p>I’m sure we’ll know by the end of the day.

  7. still hasn’t caught on about the family connection.

    <

    p>Joe’s now talking about how he doesn’t want his son subjected to all this publicity, so after joining the talk show circuit, he’s quieting down now. My guess? They realize this Keating connection is not even skin deep.  

  8. I would love, love, love this all to be true, but so far I haven’t seen any of these links actually show a relationship beyond the common last name.

    <

    p>* One site mentions “close relative” but doesn’t clarify.  
    * One site calls him Robert’s “son-in-law” which doesn’t explain the same last name.
    * Another site says he’s Robert’s son, but that would make the elder Wurzelbacher only 18 when he was born (obviously not unheard of, but statistically less likely).
    * One site refers to them both being from the Cincinnati area, but Joe is from Toledo, three hours north.

    <

    p>I’ll reserve judgment until we know more.

    • The odds of them NOT being related are slim, but you’re right-I’d like to know the nature of the relationships. If Joe the Plumber is the son or nephew of McKeating 5 dude, then that will make the McCain camp look very foolish. Like they needed any help.

  9. this is the tried-and-true republican tactic of ‘creating their own reality’.

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    p>newt gingrich was the modern day architect of this ploy.
    make up some bs story with supposedly real people to illustrate some political point. suggest that the example is but the tip of a mighty iceberg.

    <

    p>then when it’s revealed that the whole story is a fabrication, then fall back on some line about the rigged example ‘representing the truth’.

    <

    p>so yeah, joe the plumber is a sham. but any of the hardworking americans who share any characteristics of the ‘joe the plumber’, well, they are real. and the pain that an obama presidency will cause them is real. so joe is a good as real. voila!

    <

    p>it’s like magic.
    next trick; pull alternative energy development out from behind your ear.

    <

    p>

      • gosh, but it seems so easy to imagine her.
        brand new caddie, gold tooth, bunch of kids, isaac hayes records, living better than me.

        <

        p>next thing, you’ll be telling me that some of the people kicked out of their homes after republicans drove the abolishment of rent control weren’t harvard professors driving brand new bmw’s.

        <

        p>

  10. According to the Toledo Blade –

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    p>

    Linda Howe, executive director of the Lucas County Board of Elections, said a Samuel Joseph Worzelbacher, whose address and age match Joe the Plumber’s, registered in Lucas County on Sept. 10, 1992. He voted in his first primary on March 4 of this year, registering as a Republican.

    Ms. Howe said that the name may be misspelled in the database.

    <

    p>Meanwhile Republicans in Ohio are pushing to have lists of new registrants matched against DMV and Social Security records so they can challenge those whose names or numbers do not match or force them to vote on provisional ballots.  Those whose names are misspelled like Mr. Wurzel/Worzelbacher’s could be denied their vote.

    <

    p>Apparently John McCain vetted Joe The Plumber as carefully as Sarah Palin.  

  11. Andrew Sullivan points out that, by mid-morning today, Mr. Joe the Plumber had given more press conferences than the GOP nominee for VP of the United States has to date.

  14. Forget the 24 hour news cycle, the youtube/google capabilities are the real game changer of this campaign cycle.  It must make McCain’s head spin considering he’s not even an internet user.

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    p>A story from the cleveland.com website.  Apparently he’s now in trouble for not having a plumber’s license, and the Ohio Sec. State is appealing for Joe to be able to vote against the Republican Party.  

    He’s a plumber without a plumbing license, as reported by the Associated Press. He says he doesn’t need one for residential work, but Lucas County says that’s wrong.

    …

    Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner noted the irony today: The Ohio Republican Party wants careful scrutiny of every new voter registration, but the tools it wants her to use — Social Security numbers and drivers’ licenses — could knock out legitimate voters due to typos, human error or software issues. Those voters then would have to get provisional ballots, which don’t account for much unless the election is tight, and which require additional ID procedures.

    Brunner has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. But if the GOP prevails, “Joe the Plumber and Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted – who are both technically ‘mismatches’ in this database – would have to use provisional ballots on Election Day,” Brunner said in a news release.

    <

    p>And I like this last quote:

    “I don’t have a lot of pull. It’s not like I’m Matt Damon,” Wurzelbacher said.

    “I just hope I’m not making too much of a fool of myself,” he added.

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